The Conqueror of Hearts by Shaykh Mustafa Kamal Naqshbandi

The Conqueror of Hearts
In the Land of Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh

In the Land of Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh
Travels In Turkey With

Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad
Naqshbandi Mujaddidi (db)
Compiled by
Faqir Mustafa Kamal
M a k ta b at u l Faqi r
2011 Maktabatul Faqir

First Edition 2011
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored,
or transmitted in any form by any means,
electronic or otherwise, including photocopying, recording, Internet, or by any storage and
retrieval system without written permission
from Maktabatul Faqir.
A moment spent in the company of the friends of Allah

Is better than a hundred years of sincere worship
Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi
Contents
Foreword9
Prologue11
Acknowledgements19
Day 1
The Much Anticipated Arrival
The Power of the Quran
History at Every TurnA Night Tour of Istanbul
21
22
26
Day 2
Visit to the Sacred Trusts
History of the Sacred Trusts
Turning Heads at Topkapi Palace
Panorama 1453 History Museum
Significance of the Conquest of Istanbul
Founding of the Ottoman Sultanate: The Story of Osman Ghazi
Al-Fatehs Spiritual Guide: Shaykh Aaq Shemsuddin
Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh and the Conquest of Istanbul
An Extraordinary Plan
Shaykh Aaq Shemsuddin s Duas
The Opening of Constantinople
Visit to Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh
Understanding the Secret of the Ummahs Success
7
29
30
34
35
37
39
42
42
44
45
45
48
50
Day 3
Lessons in History along the Bosphorus
Zikr on the Bosphorus
A Visit to Eyup Sultan
Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari
The King of Hearts at Eyup Sultan
Journey to Konya
55
59
60
62
66
66
Day 4
Visit to Maulana Rumi s Shrine
Visit to Shams Tabriz s Shrine
A Moth around a Flame
Maulana Rumi s Spiritual Stature
Abandoned Traditional Schools of Learning
Our Naqshbandi Khanqah in Konya
Understanding Maulana Rumi and the Masnavi
On the Capacity to Accept Spiritual Benefit
On the Benefit of Love on the Day of Judgment
On Attaining the Forgiveness of Allah
On the Paths of the Nafs and Qalb
Return from Konya
69
75
79
80
80
81
82
83
84
87
91
91
94
Day 5
Visit to the Hagia Sofia (Ayasofya)
The Conqueror of Hearts at the Ayasofya
Visit to Sultan Ahmed Mosque
The Difference between Real and Fake
Bidding Farewell
95
97
99
99
100
Foreword

The khayr ul quroon were driven by an intense love for Allah to
take His blessed name to all corners of the world. It is an amazing
fact that even today, the boundaries of the core Muslim World are
largely demarcated by those lands that were blessed by the physical
presence of the Sahaba, the tabieen, and the taba tabieen. During
travels across the world, this faqir has repeatedly been amazed to find
that the final resting places of the people of khayr al quroon continue
to be the blessed outposts on the borders of Muslim lands. Indeed, an
indication is sufficient for the wise!
Turkey is one such land that was blessed with the presence of the
Companions of the Prophet . The story of ishq that began with the
love and adab of Sayyidna Abu Ayub al-Ansari for the Prophet
continued until his death at the gates of Constantinople. This same
story of ishq continues through to Konya in Turkey, where as a result
of his meeting with Shams Tabriz , Maulana Rumi s spiritual
intoxication led him to produce that timeless expression of love for
Allah known as the Masnavi. This same ishq and adab perfumed
the life of Muhammad al-Fatih that whose accomplishments
were foretold in ahadeeth. However, this fable of ishq does not finish here. There are still many more chapters to be written until the
end of time.
9
Faqir is duty-bound by the amanah placed on me by my mashaikh

to take the zikr of Allah, Allah, Allah to all corners of the world.
We are alive so that Your Name may live on
May Allah accept our journey to Turkey and make it a means of

our success in the Hereafter. Ameen.
Faqir Zulfiqar Ahmad
NaqshbandiMujaddidi

5 April 2011
10
Prologue
Imam Razi said that if a wali, a friend of Allah , passes through
a town, everyone in that town obtains a portion of his spiritual radiance, his noor. The reality of this noor, and its recognition by those
whose hearts are alive, is illustrated here in three incidents that we have
heard from our Shaykh, Hazrat Maulana Zulfiqar Ahmad Naqshbandi
Mujaddidi (db), which are described below.
Once, Imam-ul-Ulema was-Suleha1 Hazrat Khwaja Abdul Malik
Siddiqui visited the town of Khewra in Punjab, Pakistan, accompanied by his renowned khalifa (authorized deputy) Hazrat Ghulam
Habib 2. Upon reaching a bend in the mountainous track on which
they were travelling, he glanced at the town, now in sight, and asked
whether any pious elder, a buzurg, lived there. Hazrat Ghulam Habib
informed him that no such personality resided there. Khwaja Sahib
was not convinced, as his spiritual intuition told him something
different, and he repeated his question; Hazrat Ghulam Habib
confirmed that he was well-acquainted with the town and its residents,
and was certain that no one of notable spiritual standing was amongst
1 This title, which literally means Leader of the Religious Scholars and the Righteous
was given to Hazrat Khwaja Abdul Malik Siddiqui , who was the grand-Shaykh of
our Hazrat (db), in lieu of his exalted spiritual stature and the scope of his influence.
2 Murshid-e-Aalam (Spiritual Guide of the World), Hazrat Ghulam Habib was a
great Naqshbandi shaykh and was the spiritual guide of our Hazrat (db).
11
them. However, upon reaching the house of their hosts they came to
know that another khalifa of Hazrat Khwaja Fazal Ali Qureishi 3
was passing through Khewra, and had decided to stop there for a while.
Khwaja Sahib turned to his companion and said, Did I not tell
you that I could see the noor of a wali here?
Another illuminating incident involves Maulana Badr-e-Alam 4,
a great alim (religious scholar) whose book Tarjuman-us-Sunnah is
well-known and highly respected amongst religious scholars. While
writing the book, Maulana Badr-e-Alam engaged the services of
Haji Muhammad Ala Sahib from Idara-e-Mujaddidiya, Karachi, for
the actual lettering of the final draft. Once during the course of this
engagement, Maulana Badr-e-Alam planned to visit Karachi to
work with Haji Sahib on editing the book, and wrote a letter to Haji
Sahib informing him of his upcoming trip. He requested that news of
his visit not be made public as he did not want any distractions from
the task at hand. Hazrat Syed Zawwaar Husain Shah Sahib 5 was in
those days teaching in a school, and was learning the art of handwriting from Haji Muhammad Ala Sahib in his spare time. Because his
visits were a daily practice, Haji Sahib mentioned Maulana Badr-eAlam s visit to him, and invited him to join them for dinner; Syed
Zawwaar Husain Shah Sahib accepted this invitation. Maulana
Badr-e-Alam arrived at Haji Sahibs as planned and they worked on
3 Hazrat Khwaja Fazal Ali Qureishi was a great Naqshbandi shaykh and was the
spiritual guide of Hazrat Khwaja Abdul Malik Siddiqui .
4 Maulana Badre-e-Alam was a leading scholar of Hadith who was a graduate of
Madrasah Mazahir-e-Ulum in Saharanpur, and of Dar al-Ulum Deoband. He attended the
lectures of Maulana Anwar Shah al-Kashmiri on the Sahih of Imam al-Bukhari for
five years. He transcribed his beloved teachers lectures in Arabic which were published
as Faiz al-Bari ala Sahih al-Bukhari. After the partition of India and Pakistan, Maulana
Badr Alam immigrated to Pakistan and lectured at Dar al-Ulum al-Islamiyyah founded
by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani . His love for Madinah Munawwarah led him
to settle there in 1953 and he passed away in this Blessed City in 1965.
5 Hazrat Syed Zawwaar Husain Shah Sahib was a great Naqshbandi shaykh and
the first spiritual guide of our beloved Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad Naqshbandi Mujaddidi
(db). He was also a great Hanafi scholar and author of the fiqh masterpiece, Umdatul Fiqh.
12
Prologue
their book, after which they ate dinner and prepared for Isha. Maulana
Badr-e-Alam said to Syed Zawwaar Husain Shah Sahib , you
appear to be a maulvi, why dont you lead the prayer tonight. Shah
Sahib agreed and led the prayer. After completion of the prayer,
Maulana Badr-e-Alam s state was visibly changed and he said to
Haji Ala Sahib that if there is a sahib-e-nisbat buzurg (a pious elder
who has attained the blessing of spiritual connection) in the gathering we should be told about it so that we may be able to give him due
respect. Haji Sahib was surprised and asked who amongst them was
of such an elevated spiritual standing? Maulana Sahib pointed to
Syed Zawwaar Husain Shah Sahib , a revelation that shocked Haji
Ala Sahib for Shah Sahib had been his student for many years
and out of his humility had never once made mention of his nisbat.
Maulana Badr-e-Alam Sahib explained that it was Shah Sahib s
greatness that he had kept such a big blessing a secret for so long. Haji
Ala Sahib later investigated and confirmed that Syed Zawaar Husain
Shah Sahib had indeed attained the noor of nisbat from his Shaykh,
Hazrat Khwaja Muhammad Saeed Quraishi .
Hazrat once shared with us his own experience from his young age.
He had a colleague, a fellow-engineer, whose Shaykh was supposed
to visit their home-town. He invited Hazrat to meet the Shaykh and
Hazrat accepted the invitation on the condition that he be introduced
to the venerable guest simply as a manager in the factory. On the day
of the visit, Hazrat discreetly came to the gathering of the Shaykh as
promised, donning a cap instead of his signature imamah (turban), and
sat at the back of the gathering inconspicuously. After the gathering,
the Shaykh was scheduled to leave for a nearby village, but the man
who was supposed to take him there did not arrive on time. Sensing
his anxiety at the delay, Hazrat offered to take the Shaykh wherever
he needed to go. His colleague accepted the offer and they set off,
with the Shaykh sitting in the passenger seat besides Hazrat, and his
colleague in the back. The teacher and student talked along the way
as Hazrat drove silently. When they reached the village it was time for
13
Isha so they decided to make wudu and pray. After prayer, the Shaykh
invited everyone to sit in muraqabah (silent remembrance of Allah
). However, he finished soon after he had started and summoned his
student to him, his displeasure evident from his face as he reprimanded
his student for something. He then turned to Hazrat and said Neither
you nor your colleague told me who you really were. You should have
informed me to save me from behaving inappropriately with you. I
did not show you the respect you deserve. But in muraqabah I saw
clearly the noor of nisbat in you. Now to make up for my negligence, I
will walk across the entire village with you along with all my students
here, to see you off.
During our trip to Syria with Hazrat, we ourselves witnessed how
this noor of our Shaykh can be clearly seen by those whose hearts are
alive. On our way to the resting place of Imam Nawawi we stopped
for Friday prayers at a local mosque in Nawa. After the prayer ended,
the khateeb of the mosque came from across the mosque to us, held
Hazrats hand and insisted that he be granted the honor of hosting
Hazrat for lunch. However, since our schedule was packed, Hazrat
politely declined his offer. The man then reached into his pocket and
took out a bundle of notes and handed it to us, insisting that we use
it to buy ourselves lunch; we estimated the amount as being a large
portion of his monthly salary, and far more than we needed for lunch.
We were all wondering how this complete stranger had recognized
Hazrat. Just then the khateeb, who must have noticed our questioning
looks, addressed Hazrat and explained, Your noor drew me to you.
In October 2010, our beloved Shaykh took his noor to Istanbul.
With its strategic location and striking beauty, with the picturesque
Bosphorus dividing the city into its Asian and European parts, Istanbul
has been the jewel in the crown and the feather in the cap of many a
king and commander, and its conquest and defeat has marked the rise
and fall of civilizations. This historic city has been the battleground
for competing world-powers throughout the ages, and for Muslims it
serves as a reminder of the glorious past, as well as the present predica14
Prologue
ment, of the Ummah. While rulers in the past conquered the city with
swords and cannon balls, our Shaykh entered to wield a power much
greater than that of weapons, to produce an effect more long-lasting.
He entered, as he always does, to conquer hearts, and time will surely
tell what impact this brief trip had on the people of this city.
Prior to Hazrat, other Naqshbandi elders also brought the noor
of this nisbat to Turkey. Though the first Naqshbandis had arrived
in Anatolia by the turn of the 15th century, it was not until later in
the 15th century through the khulafa and disciples of Hazrat Khwaja
Ubaidullah Ahrar that one can speak of a whole wave of Naqshbandi
transmission to the region, which included modern-day Turkey. It was
because of Khwaja Ubaidullah Ahrar s concerted efforts that the
Naqshbandi silsila spread westward from Central Asia, and a strong
base was established for the Naqshbandi order in Turkey.
Shaykh Muhammad Murad , a khalifa of Khwaja Muhammad
Masum (the son of Imam-e-Rabbani Mujaddid Alf-e-Thaani Shaykh
Ahmad Sirhindi 6) is credited with introducing and popularizing the
Mujaddidi branch of the Naqshbandi order in the Ottoman lands. In
1681 he visited Istanbul, where he spent five years. After travels spanning almost three decades, he returned to Istanbul in 1729 and died
there the same year. A khanqah7 built at his tomb became the center of
the Mujaddidi branch of the Naqshbandi order in the Ottoman lands.
He was followed by Maulana Khalid Rumi , the most prominent
non-Indian khalifa of Hazrat Ghulam Ali Dehlawi . Hazrat Ghulam
Ali Dehlawi was the khalifa of Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan and
the 31st in our Shaykhs line of Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi mashaikh, our
6 Imam-e-Rabbani, Hazrat Mujaddid Alf-e-Sani, Shaykh Ahmed Sirhindi was one
of the greatest of the mashaikh of Naqshband and the mujaddid (renewer) of the second
millennium. He expanded the lessons of the Naqshbandi tariqah because of which
the spiritual chain after him is also known as Mujaddidi. He is also famous for having
stood up to the Mughal emperor Akbar when the latter invented the new religion of
Deen-e-Ilahi.
7A khanqah is a spiritual sanctuary where travelers (salikeen) on the spiritual path
(sulook) spend time in the company of their shaykh to be cured of their spiritual diseases.
15
Hazrat being the 40th. Hazrat Ghulam Ali Dehlawi was known
as a mujaddid of the 13th (hijrah) century. Under his supervision, his
khalifa Maulana Khalid Rumi revived the Naqshbandi order in
Iraq, Syria and Turkey in the early 19th century. In a letter written to
the scholars and nobility of Turkey in support of Maulana Khalid ,
Hazrat Ghulam Ali said, His hand is my hand, his vision is my
vision, his friendship is my friendship. His rejection by the people
and the animosity they show towards him adversely affect me. His
acceptance by the people is like their acceptance of my masters, namely
Shah Naqshband, Khwaja Ahrar, Khwaja Muhammad Baqi and
Hazrat Mujaddid. It is incumbent upon the Muslims of that country
to respect and revere him. Similarly it is obligatory upon me to pray
for his well-being, long life and safety. Amongst those that attained
the noor of nisbat through Maulana Khalid Rumi were hundreds
of ulema, the most prominent amongst them being the great Hanafi
jurist, Maulana Ibn e Abideen ash-Shami , author of the famous
Radd al-Mukhtar. Maulana Ghulam Muhiyuddin Qusuri , Hazrat
Ghulam Ali s major khalifa and compiler of his discourses, ends his
description of Maulana Khalid Rumi by saying that from visitors
(to Delhi) we learn that Maulana is the marja (religious reference)
of all the people of Rum (present-day Turkey).
Since a lot of time had since passed, time was apt for another
spiritual polish and Allah opened the way for our Hazrat to once
again take the noor of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi nisbat to Turkey.
Those of us who were blessed enough to accompany Hazrat on this
journey cannot thank Allah the Most Gracious enough for this
opportunity to enrich our souls in the invaluable company of our
Shaykh. Alhamdulillah a million times! Indeed, the mere sight of the
friends of Allah serves as a reminder of Him, and the best moments
of our lives are the ones spent beholding the radiant countenance of
our Hazrat, and under his transformative gaze. As Maulana Rumi ,
that iconic lover of Allah who hailed from the city of Konya in
present-day Turkey, once said:
16
Prologue

A moment spent in the company of the friends of Allah

Is better than a hundred years of sincere worship.
The details of this historic trip are recorded for the benefit of our
brothers and sisters who were not with us through these travels. As
Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi once said, reading about the words and
actions of the awliya (friends) of Allah is an army from the armies
of Allah , and benefit readers in every age. In the pages that follow,
we relive the most precious moments from what were truly amongst
the best days of our lives.
Mustafa Kamal
Jamadi ul Awal 1432
(April 2011)
17
Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to our beloved Shaykh, the light of our lives,
without whom our lives would be completely empty.
The statement of my lifes account is just this

I take you out and the rest is all loss
We would like to thank Hazrat Maulana Shaykh Ebrahim Muhammad

Saheb (db) of South Africa for reviewing the text and providing his
extremely beneficial comments and advice. May Allah reward him
for this.
The writing of this book would also have been impossible without
the hard work, wise counsel and continuous support of my wife who
spent countless hours in relation to the preparation of this book. May
Allah reward her as only He best can.
19
Day 1
The Much Anticipated Arrival
Hazrat was scheduled to arrive at Ataturk International Airport,
Istanbul, at 3 pm on Friday, October 15, 2010. This faqir arrived a
day earlier to make sure the hotel and transportation arrangements
were suitable, to stock up on basic supplies, and to scope out the area
surrounding our hotel for pharmacies, grocery stores, and money
changers etc.
We reached the airport on time to pick up Hazrat; my heart paced
wildly as my eyes scanned the arriving passengers for him. Finally,
there he was, still tall and striking, easily identifiable by the noor and
calmness emanating from him, exuding an invisible force drawing
those around him helplessly towards him. After exchanging happy
greetings, we drove with Hazrat to our hotel.
Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar (db) from Chicago, who was one of
Hazrats main companions on this journey, was waiting for Hazrat
back at the hotel. Upon seeing Hazrat he exclaimed, echoing what all
of us felt, The sun has just risen and lighted up the world of my heart!
After exchanging happy greetings, we sat in the hotel lobby to discuss the itinerary for the next five days. Our hotel was centrally located
in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, which was where most
21
of the main historic sites of the city were located, in between numerous
kebab and souvenir shops. We had rented a mini-bus driven by a local
driver to take us on our local excursions, our only planned long distance journey being an overnight trip to Konya, the town of Maulana
Jalaluddin Rumi . Hazrat made minor changes to the itinerary to
make it easier for the whole group to follow; as always, he wanted
to make sure that everyone felt comfortable throughout the journey.
The Power of the Quran

During the course of this first sitting, Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar
showed Hazrat the invitation to his daughters Khatam-e-Quran celebration, which was scheduled for later in the year to commemorate
the completion of her memorization of the Quran. Hazrat read the
invitation carefully. Shaykh Husain then asked Hazrat for some words
of advice for the young haafizah, which could also be shared with the
guests at the party. Hazrat suggested that the program include a talk
similar to the one that he had recently delivered at the last Annual
Naqshbandi Congregation. The talk was on the profound impact of
the Quran; on how the Word of Allah dramatically changed the
lives of individuals who opened their hearts to it, and Hazrat decided
to share with us at that point some examples of this.
One of the stories he related involved Hazrat Musab bin Umair ,
when he was sent by the Prophet to Madinah Munawwarah prior
to hijrah to teach the Quran, in response to a request by the people
of Madinah Munawwarah for such a teacher. Asad bin Zurarah
was his host there; he would introduce Musab to members of his
community and Musab would proceed to teach them the Book of
Allah . The leader of the tribe of Aws was Saad bin Maaz, and Usaid
bin Huzair was his cousin and trusted confidante. One day both the
tribal elders discussed how the two men, Musab bin Umair and
Asad bin Zurarah , were fooling the weak in their community. Saad
22
Day 1
bin Maaz sent his cousin to stop them, to make Musab abandon
his mission and return home. Arming himself with his spear, Usaid
bin Huzair went in search of Musab bin Umair and Asad bin
Zurarah a man with a mission. When Asad saw Usaid bin
Huzair approaching, he informed Musab that this was a leader
of the community, and requested Musab to prove the reality of
Allah to him, invite him to Islam with sincerity, and speak the
truth without fear. Upon reaching them, Usaid launched a tirade of
accusations and curses. Musab did not lose his temper and asked
Usaid to sit down and hear him out; Usaid thought it was only fair
to give the opposing party a chance to speak, so he stuck his spear in
the ground and sat down. Musab spoke with him about Islam and
recited some verses of the Quran before him, certain of the impact
that the Quran had on the hearts of those who hear it. By the time
Musab had concluded his recitation, Usaid was smitten and asked,
How can I become like you? He was told to take a bath and purify
himself, then to recite the testimony of faith and perform the ritual
prayer. Thereafter, Usaid advised Musab to direct his efforts at
someone more important and influential than himself, and planned
to send his cousin Saad bin Maaz, Musab s way.
When Usaid returned to Saad bin Maaz, the tribal leader
immediately realized that Usaid was a changed man and swore that
the face with which Usaid returned was not the same face with which
he left him just a short while ago. He questioned his cousin regarding
what had happened and Usaid told him that he had tried to stop
the duo but in vain, and suggested that Saad should go and try for
himselfa ploy to expose Saad to the same overwhelming power of
the Quran that had turned the world of his heart upside down in a
matter of just moments. So Saad went to Musab bin Umair and
Asad bin Zurarah and expressed his contempt for their activities.
Musab asked him to hear what he had to say and began reciting
the initial verses of Surah al-Zukhruf before him. Succumbing as his
cousin had before him to the irresistible power of the Quran, Saad
23
too helplessly asked, How can I become like you? On Musab s

instructions, Saad bin Maaz then recited the testimony of faith
and entered the fold of Islam. Thereafter he gathered his people and
asked them regarding their assessment of his performance as their
leader. The members of his tribe were unanimous in acclaiming his
leadership and astute judgment. Thereupon he declared that it would
be unlawful for him to talk to any man or woman in his tribe until the
entire clan accepted Islam. The entire tribe hailed his demand and as
Usaid bin Huzair had anticipated, not a single person remained
outside the fold of Islam. Such was the overwhelming power that the
Quran wielded on the hearts of those who heard it, turning enemies
into friends in a matter of moments.
Hazrat followed this with the story of Saalim, the freed slave of
Abu Huzaifa . A man by the name of Salaam Ibn Jubair who lived
near Madinah Munawwarah went to Syria on a business trip. On the
way back he came across a slave-merchant who was selling a young boy
at a very low price. Although the boy was neither very good-looking
nor very strong, Salaam decided to purchase him, thinking he would
sell him off as a servant to someone back home. However, when
Salaam put his goods on sale in Madinah Munawwarah, he was able
to sell everything at a profit, but was unable to get rid of the young
boy, whose ordinary looks and skinny build failed to attract any buyers who considered him too weak to be able to work well. Three days
passed with the boy standing hungry and thirsty in the heat, until
finally a woman by the name of Thubaita Bint Yaaar came across him.
She was a kind-hearted woman and felt sorry for the boy and asked
Salaam how much he wanted for him. Salaam was desperate to get
the boy off his hands and was willing to sell him for exactly as much
as he had bought him for, without any profit. Thubaita thus bought
Saalim, and he became a part of her household.
Now it so happened that a trade caravan returning to Makkah
Mukarramah from Syria stopped in Madinah Munawwarah to rest. In
the caravan was a well-to-do businessman from Makkah Mukarramah
24
Day 1
by the name of Abu Huzaifa who heard about Saalims story and was
impressed by Thubaitas kindness. The young woman had many other
virtues and was intelligent, so Abu Huzaifa sent a marriage proposal
for her, which was accepted by her family and they were soon married.
Sometime thereafter, Abu Huzaifa decided to return home and took
Thubaita and Saalim with him. In his absence, the message of Islam
had started spreading in Makkah Mukarramah and one of his friends
from among the business community there, Usman bin Affan , had
converted to Islam while he was away. He felt that Usman was
behaving differently with him, more distant than before, and asked
him regarding his changed attitude. Usman explained to him that
the difference in their religions had created a gap between them and
Abu Huzaifa was so moved by his speech that he came to the Prophet
and accepted Islam. Thubaita followed suit. One day she heard the
Prophet s sermon highlighting the rewards that a person earns by
freeing a slave and decided to free Saalim, but Saalim was very upset
by this decision as he had nowhere to go. Abu Huzaifa offered to
keep Saalim with him, which is why Saalim became known as the
Maula, the freed slave, of Abu Huzaifa .
Saalim also accepted Islam and presented himself before the
Prophet to learn the Quran. The economic condition, social status
and physical appearance of this young man were so pitiable that no
one considered him worth anything. However, the knowledge of the
Quran that he acquired elevated his status such that, according to a
narration by Hazrat Abdullah ibn Umar , a time came when during
the emigration to Madinah Munawwarah, the first group of Muslims
reached Quba and made Saalim Maula Abi Huzaifa their Imam
in prayer, and those praying behind him included Hazrat Umar .
The Quran lifted this child from the farsh (floor) to the arsh (throne),
from the time when no one wanted to buy him to the time when
Hazrat Umar was praying behind him. The Prophet heard his
recitation of the Quran and said All praise is for Allah who made
in my Ummah a person like you. The Prophet also testified that
25
Saalim housed in his heart an intense love of Allah . It was this

same former slave about whom Umar said around the time of his
death, If Saalim were alive, I would have made him the leader after
me, for the Prophet of Allah testified that Saalim loved Allah
intensely. It is thus that the Quran changes the lives of people, and
elevates the fallen to unprecedented heights.
We were all stirred by this talk and certainly not ready to call it a
day just yet. So we requested Hazrat to take with us a quick round of
some historical sites in Istanbul by night, a plea that Hazrat graciously
accepted, despite being fatigued by his journey.
History at Every TurnA Night Tour of Istanbul

We ate dinner, freshened up, and then set out for our first excursiona
bus ride to see Istanbuls historical sites by night. We passed by the
Dolmabahe Palace, which served as the administrative center of the
Ottoman Empire between 1856 and 1922. Prior to that, the Ottoman
sultan and his family lived in the Topkapi Palace, a beautiful yet practical construction. However, the later Ottomans felt the need for a more
luxurious and stylish European-style palace as a sign of prosperity of
the, in truth, fledgling Ottoman Empire, and to compete with symbols
of Western affluence. The construction of the lavish Dolmabahce
Palace cost the equivalent of 35 tons of gold, 14 of which were used
in decoration, and was a huge drain on the already scarce Ottoman
financial resources. After the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in
1924, it became the summer residence of the President Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, the capital having been shifted to Ankara. Ataturk spent the
last days of his life in this palace, where he received medical treatment,
and died there on November 10, 1938. Later on it was converted into
a museum and remains open to the public to this day.
The driver took us over the Galata Bridge across the Golden Horn,
an inlet of the Bosphorus on the European side of Istanbul, which got
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its name because of its horn shape, and its golden color to onlookers
at sunset. We drove up and down narrow hilly streets to see the Galata
Tower, a medieval nine-storey stone tower in the Galata district of
Istanbul built by the Genoese in 1348.
On the way back we ate Dondurma, Turkish ice cream known for
its thickness and chewy texture, imparted because of the inclusion of
salep (flour made from the root of Early Purple Orchid), and mastic
(a resin) as key ingredients. As we struggled to enjoy this Turkish
specialty, Hazrat labeled the ice cream as the stickiest in the world!
We returned to the hotel and settled in for the night with smiles on
our faces and immeasurable joy in our hearts at the sweet realization
that we were, indeed, in Istanbul with our Hazrat!
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Visit to the Sacred Trusts
The love of the Prophet that our Hazrat had instilled in our hearts
was making us impatient to see the sacred relics associated with him
and his Companions, on display at the famous Topkapi Palace
Museum, and we knew that for Hazrat this was also a priority. So
without wasting any time, the very first place we visited the next
morning was the Topkapi Palace, and once there, we eagerly made
our way to the Pavilion of Sacred Trusts.
The Topkapi Palace was the official and primary residence of the
Ottoman sultans in Istanbul for approximately 400 years of their
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624-year reign, from 14651856 ce. It was transformed into a museum

in April 1924.
At the Palace, Hazrat by-passed the Imperial Council (Divan-eHumayun), the Royal Treasuries, the Tower of Justice, the Chamber
of Petitions, the Conquerors Pavilion, and the personal quarters of
the royal family, including the Harem, and headed straight for the
Chamber of Sacred Relics, which houses the world famous Sacred
Trusts. On the way, we stopped momentarily to see the designated
place where the Standard of the Prophet would be brought out
and stuck into the ground for barakah (blessing) every time the Sultan
dispatched a military campaign.
History of the Sacred Trusts

The Companions of the Prophet loved him more than they loved
their own selves. Just as they preserved every word that was uttered
from his blessed mouth, they also conserved material objects connected with him. Such was the extent of their love for their Prophet
, that it is reported that women would send their children with glass
bottles to gather in them the drops of sweat that fell from his blessed
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body, just as they would collect the strands of hair that fell from his
sacred body onto the mattress on which he lay. Just as his words were
transmitted from generation to generation, his sacred relics, including
his clothing, his weapons, his staff, his flag, his tooth and even the
strands of his hair, were passed on in families from one generation to
the next. These, as well as objects associated with former Prophets, the
Companions of Prophet Muhammad , and later great Muslims, were
also collected by caliphs, becoming symbols of caliphal rule.
It is said that the Ottoman Sultan, Selim Khan I, invaded Egypt

in 1517 in response to a dream seen by his doorkeeper, Hasan Aga. In
the dream, a group of Arabs with glowing faces arrived at the palace
door. Four striking figures stood closest to the door, each bearing a
flag in his hands. The one holding the sultans white flag knocked at
the door and when Hasan Aga opened it, the standard-bearer said,
These are the Companions of the Messenger of Allah . He sends
his greetings (to Selim Khan) and says, Tell him to rise and come. The
care of the Haramain (the two Holy Mosques) has been bestowed
upon him. This is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, this is Umar al-Farooq, and
this is Uthman Zun-Nurain (Possessor of Two Lights). I am Ali ibn
Abi Talib. Give my greetings to Selim Khan. When the Sultan heard
these words, his face reddened and he began to weep. Following this
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event, he launched a campaign against the Mamluk sultanate. Egypt

and the Hijaz soon came under Ottoman control and Selims authority
over the new territory was officially proclaimed on February 20th, 1517,
when the Friday sermon in Cairo was delivered in his name. According
to custom, the Imam referred to the sultan as the Ruler of Haramain.
But Sultan Selim spoke up and corrected him, preferring instead to
be referred to as the Servant of the Haramain. Sultan Selim I thus
became the first Ottoman Sultan to assume the title of caliph and
Khadim-al-Haramain, Servant of the Two Sacred Mosques.
When he returned from the Egyptian campaign, Sultan Selim I
brought with him the sacred relics from the treasuries of the Mamluk
state, Abbasid caliphate, and the Hejaz emirate. In Istanbul they were
assigned the most precious room in the Sultans palace, and were
shown extraordinary reverence. It is said that Sultan Selim himself
used to clean the room which housed the sacred relics. Since the
time they were first brought to Topkapi Palace, the best reciters of
the Holy Quran were appointed to recite the Quran day and night
in the chamber that housed these relics, a 400 year old tradition
that continues to this day. During Ottoman times, these relics had
a privileged position in official ceremonies, which often included
visits to the Holy Mantle of the Prophet and the unfolding of the
Holy Standard of the Prophet when Ottoman military campaigns
were dispatched by the Sultan. After the establishment of the Turkish
Republic, when Topkapi Palace was transformed into a museum, the
Pavilion of Sacred Trusts was maintained, and the items stored there
continued to be preserved in the former tradition. In August 1962,
the sacred relics were put on public display.
While there are a large number of sacred relics that are kept away
from the public eye, on display are a number of priceless items. These
include belongings attributed to former prophets: a pot belonging
to Prophet Ibrahim , the staff of Prophet Musa , the turban of
Prophet Yusuf , Prophet Dawood s sword, and Prophet Yahya
s forearm and a fragment of his skull. Also on display are swords
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belonging to the four Rightly-guided Caliphs and other Companions

of the Prophet and keys to the door of the Blessed Kaaba, an old
casing of the Black Stone, and older models of the Mizaab-e-Rahmat,
the gold rain gutter of the Blessed Kaaba. The highlight of the exhibit
are items associated with Prophet Muhammad , including his tooth
that fell in the Battle of Uhud, his footprint, his sword, bow and staff,
his seal, a bowl from which he drank water, and a letter dispatched by
him. His mantle and banner, the most valuable of the sacred trusts,
are kept safe in a chest, which we could see from a distance through
glass windows. We felt truly blessed that some items that are usually
not on display were exhibited for visitors that day, including a shirt
and prayer mat belonging to Hazrat Fatima , the beloved youngest
daughter of the Prophet , and a shirt belonging to her son, Hazrat
Husain . In this same section, we were blessed to see what was truly
the highlight of the Pavilion of Sacred Trustsstrands of hairs of the
Prophet . Our hearts were captured by these exhibits, and we could
feel the barakah of these items. While in the Pavilion of Sacred Trusts,
we also passed through the room where the Holy Quran has been read
almost continuously for 400 years, and saw with our own eyes a Qari
adding barakah to the rooms with his recitation of the Book of Allah .
Other rooms in the museum housed precious items belonging
to generations of Ottoman sultans and their families: jewelry and
jewelry boxes, mirrors and combs, cups and goblets, princes cradles
and kings thrones, armors and swords. The most valuable exhibit
from the Imperial Treasury is the 86 carat, pear-shaped, diamond
known as the Spoonmakers Diamond. Hazrat rushed through these
exhibits, unimpressed by their glitter, as other tourists drooled over
these opulent displays. His purpose of visiting the museum, in fact
one of the primary motivations behind his entire trip to Istanbul, had
been achieved. His walk through the remaining exhibits was more
for the interest of the rest of the group than for himself, but after the
invaluable items we had just seen, the collection of royal treasures
failed to appeal to any of us. Truly, all the diamond studded personal
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ornaments of the daughters of worldly kings were on one side, and

the patched mantle of the beloved daughter of the beloved of Allah
, may peace and blessings be upon him, on the other. Alhamdulillah,
that Allah blessed us with the opportunity to feast our sinful eyes
on these priceless treasures.
One of the most popular sections of the Topkapi Palace that is
frequented by tourists is the Imperial Harem containing more than
400 rooms which housed the Sultans wives and numerous slave-girls,
as well as other women and children of the Sultans family including
his mother. However, Hazrat expressly forbade those traversing the
spiritual path from visiting the Imperial Harem explaining that a saalik
should completely avoid every place which even slightly inclines the
heart towards lust.
Turning Heads at Topkapi Palace

As we walked through the courtyards, gardens and gates of the Topkapi
Palace back towards our bus, we noticed that our group was turning
a noticeable number of heads. We were surprised by the attention
we were attracting; no doubt our clothing was making us stand out
amidst the largely European tourists, but it was unlikely that that this
was the first time so many of the visitors had seen Muslims adorning
the Sunnah dress. When random people started coming up specifically to Hazrat and introducing themselves, we realized that it was
not the rest of us but rather Hazrat towards whom these people were
feeling attracted. As this became a pattern through the rest of our
trip, Hazrat himself later explained that it was the tawajjuh (spiritual
attention) that he was focusing on the hearts of these people that was
drawing them towards him. Giving tawajjuh, we learnt, gets tawajjuh
(attention) sometimes of the unwelcome variety! Many non-Muslims
approached Hazrat requesting to photograph him, but Hazrat politely
declined their requests, and we quickened our pace back to the bus.
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Back at the bus, this faqir brought pomegranate juice and freshly
roasted corn on the cob for members of the group, and got lots of
duas from some very hungry and thirsty companions!
After seeing the Topkapi Palace Museum, we all became highly
interested in learning more about Ottoman history. To this end, our
next visit was to the Panorama 1453 History Museum.
Panorama 1453 History Museum

The Panorama 1453 History Museum is dedicated to preserving the
history of the Muslim conquest of Constantinople. We headed straight
for the panorama, the highlight of the museum. This is a dome-like
structure, 38 meters in diameter and 20 meters tall consisting of some
3000 square meters of pictures, providing a full panoramic view which
captures a decisive moment in the Ottoman capture of Istanbul.
The purpose of the panorama, which is topped off with powerful
sound effects, is to make visitors feel like they have been transported
through a time machine to the actual event of the Muslim conquest
of Constantinople, and that is exactly how we felt! When we entered
the dome, we immediately felt like we were entering into another time
zone, another world. Painted across the dome, surrounding us on all
sides, was the scene of the battle. With the sound of the Ottoman
cannon blasts booming in the background, and real weapons accompanying the painted landscape, one could experience the excitement
of the event; as one member of our group put it, it felt as if we were
ourselves participating in the conquest. As we seeped in the scene
around us, we were reminded of the following verses by Iqbal:
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We were immovable once we stood firmly in battle

When even the feet of lions in the battlefield would be uprooted
If someone rebelled against You, we would become enraged
What is a sword, we even fought against canons!
We impressed the engraving of Tauheed in every heart
We conveyed your message even under threat from daggers
So just say it, oh Allah, who uprooted the gates of Khyber?
Who conquered the city of Caesar?
Who destroyed the false idols?
Who cut down the armies of those who rejected You?
One of the illustrations in the highly detailed scene that struck us all
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was that even in the middle of the fiercest battle the conquering Sultan,
Muhammad al-Fateh , was shown to be flanked on one side by his
spiritual guide, Shaykh Aaq Shemseddin , who was shown raising
his hands in dua, and on the other by the grand Mufti.
Significance of the Conquest of Istanbul
Iqbal summarized the importance of Istanbul in the following verses:

The tract of Constantinople, the city of Caesar

The perpetual banner of the grandeur of the Ummahs Mahdi
Like the dust of the Haram, this region is also holy
It is the shrine of the descendants of Shah-e-Lawlaak (Prophet
Muhammad )
Its air is pure like the fragrance of rose
A voice calls out from the tomb of Abu Ayub Ansari
O Muslim! This city is the heart of the Islamic Nation
This city is the outcome of millenniums of bloody sacrifices.
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The Roman Emperor Constantine changed the course of history in

330 ad when, after accepting Christianity, he shifted his capital from
Rome to the city of Byzantium on the Bosphorus, renaming it New
Rome, though it later came to be known as Constantinople. The city
became simultaneously the center of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine)
Empire as well as the Christian Orthodox Church. It is about this city
that the Prophet said:

Truly you shall conquer Constantinople and surely what a
wonderful leader will its leader be and surely what a wonderful army will that army be! (Musnad Imam Ahmad)
The burning desire to be from this wonderful army motivated many

Muslims right from the time of the Sahaba to attempts the conquest
of Constantinople. The first of these expeditions was sent by Hazrat
Muawiyya . This was followed by expeditions during the caliphates of Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz and Haroon al-Rashid .
However, a number of factors made it extremely difficult to conquer
Constantinople.
The city was built on a more or less triangular peninsula, bounded
on the south by the Sea of Marmara and on its north by the Golden
Horn, its landward side being protected by mighty defense walls originally built in 447 ad. Furthermore, the cold weather in the region was
intolerable for the Muslim invaders who were accustomed to a much
warmer climate, and the political and religious importance of the city
was such that any attempts to invade it would be met by a reaction from
all of Europe. For eight centuries, the conquest of Constantinople was
a dream for many a Muslim commander. However, this honor was
destined for the 8th Ottoman Sultan, a young man named Muhammad,
who captured the city and brought an end to the Byzantine Empire
at the young age of 21.
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Founding of the Ottoman Sultanate:

The Story of Osman Ghazi
The Ottoman sultanate was founded by Sultan Osman Ghazi, a Turk
of humble origins whose respect of the Quran elevated him to lofty
heights. His inspiring story tells of a good, well-meaning young man
who was very fond of hosting guests. Whenever he would come across
a wayfarer, he would bring him home, feed him, and provide for him
a place to stay for the night before seeing him off the following morning. All the people in his village belonged to one tribe, and did not
appreciate his bringing outsiders amongst them. They consulted each
other and decided to stop him from doing so, and one day cautioned
him against bringing any more guests to his home. However, he was
not intimidated and continued in his generous ways. This irked the
people of his village and they warned him that if he brought home
another guest, they would beat him up and throw him out of the
village. He did not take heed and the next time he brought home a
guest, his fellow tribesmen threatened to kill him if he did not leave
the village immediately.
Osman Ghazi was distraught, and worried about where he would
go. He thought of his shaykh who lived in a neighboring village just a
few kilometers away, as one thinks of ones own in times of need. He
went to his shaykh and presented his situation before him, and his
shaykh advised him to get some rest, suggesting that they discuss the
issue in the morning and think of a solution.
Osman Ghazi spent the night in the guest quarters. He woke up
at the time of Tahajjud, and after performing salah, looked for a copy
of the Quran as it was his routine to recite the Quran at this time. To
his horror, he discovered that the Quran was in a shelf which was
situated in the direction of his feet when he was sleeping; he picked
up the Holy Quran, kissed it, held it against his chest and sought
the forgiveness of his Lord for his mistake. Here Osman Ghazi was
expressing his heart-felt remorse for having disrespected the Book of
39
Allah , albeit unknowingly, and there in his sleep, his shaykh was
instructed to inform Osman Ghazi to leave the village at once, for he
was destined for great honor in the world.
Upon awaking from this dream, Osman Ghazis shaykh immediately came to his young student, only to find him clutching the
Quran, tears pouring down his face. He inquired regarding his state
and Osman Ghazi informed him that he had slept the entire night
with his feet towards the shelf in which the Quran was kept. As per
his dream, his shaykh then instructed him to leave, giving him glad
tidings of honor in the world in times to come. Osman Ghazi cried
even more as he had nowhere to go, distressed that his shaykh was
making him leave what he had considered a sanctuary. But his shaykh
insisted that he depart at once, and forced him to leave in order to
pursue his destiny.
Soon after leaving, Osman Ghazi came across a group of ten to
fifteen young men who had dedicated their lives for the service of the
deen. However, they did not have a leader as none of them was willing
to take up that position. The night before they had decided that the
first person they would come across outside the city limits the next
morning would become their leader. As fate would have it, the first
person they thus met was Osman Ghazi. They informed him of their
intention and he readily agreed to fulfill this role.
Thereafter, the band of young men set out in the path of Allah .
Whenever they would pass through a village, they would impress the
local people with their outer beauty and their inward piety. The villagers would ask them where they were headed and were told that the
group had dedicated their lives to the service of Allah . A few men
from every village would join their ranks until, eventually, hundreds
of people came into the fold. They consulted each other and decided
that since Muslim civilians in border towns would often face undue
harassment from non-Muslim armies from neighboring lands, they
would go there to protect the innocent. They headed towards these
border towns with these noble intentions, but when they were a
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few kilometers away, a non-Muslim spy of the neighboring king saw

them approaching and hurriedly informed the king of the impending
danger an army of about a thousand enthusiastic young men who
were not afraid of dying. The spy warned the king that his army would
not be able to compete with this band of fearless warriors and advised
him to strike a deal with them.
The Christian king was old and wanted to avoid a confrontation.
He sent a message to Osman Ghazi requesting peace between them,
offering to give him his daughter in marriage as a sign of his sincerity.
Osman Ghazi consulted the rest of the group and they suggested that
he should take the king up on the offer. Hence the kings daughter,
converted to Islam and was married to Osman Ghazi, who then
started living there. It so happened that this daughter was the kings
only child, so when he died shortly thereafter, no-one was considered
more worthy of taking his place than his accomplished son-in-law.
When he inherited the kingdom, Osman Ghazi remembered how
he had ended up in this position. He had been thrown out of his home,
rejected by his own kin. His shaykh had told him that because he had
so much respect of the Quran in his heart, Allah would grant him
respect and honor in the world. Since he owed his attainment of this
kingdom to the Quran, Osman Ghazi decided that he would rule
herein according to Quranic law, and establish it as the law of the
land. He successfully implemented the Shariah in his domain, to the
extent that during a court hearing, the Quran would be brought into
the courtroom first, and everyone would stand up to honor it. Then,
once the hearing was complete, the Quran would be removed from
the room first and then the court was adjourned.
This establishment of the rule of the Quran was the foundation of
the Ottoman Caliphate, which lasted for hundreds of years, allowing
people to live their lives according to the Will of Allah . Hence, one
mans respect of the Quran became the cause for the establishment of
this Islamic caliphate. Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh was the descendent
of Osman Ghazi, seven generations after him.
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Al-Fatehs Murshid (Spiritual Guide):

Shaykh Aaq Shemsuddin
Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh was nurtured from an early age by his
spiritual guide Shaykh Aaq Shemsuddin . Shaykh Aaq Shemsuddin
was a descendant of Hazrat Abu Bakr al-Siddiq . The Shaykh taught
the young boy the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet , fiqh (jurisprudence), Arabic, Persian, Turkish, mathematics, history and the art
of governance. Shaykh Aaq was also appointed by Sultan Muhammads
father to the council of ulema who acted as his regents when, as a
young man, Sultan Muhammad was appointed by his father to govern
one of the provinces to receive practical training in the art of governance. But most of all, the Shaykh instilled in his heart the spirit of
Islam and the deep desire to be the one destined to fulfill the Prophetic
prophecy regarding the opening of Constantinople for Islam.
Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh and

the Conquest of Istanbul
When Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh succeeded his father Murad II to
the throne in 1451, it seemed that he would prove an incapable ruler
and would not pose a real threat to the powers at the time. This belief
was reinforced by the friendly assurances he gave to envoys that visited
him early on during his reign. However, it soon became evident that
the young sultan, driven by the Islamic spirit instilled in him by his
teachers, was committed to extending the limits of the Islamic empire,
being particularly devoted to the conquest of Constantinople. Soon
after he came to power he began preparations for this monumental
campaign.
One of the main reasons for the failure of prior attempts at conquering the city were the reinforcements sent via sea by other European
rulers to help their brethren in Constantinople. To prevent this from
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happening required complete control over the narrow Bosphorus

straits. During his rule, Sultan Muhammad iis grandfather, Sultan
Bayezid I, had built a fortress on the Asian side of the Bosphorus
known as Anodolu Hisari, but this alone was not sufficient. Shortly
after coming to power Sultan Muhammad ii ordered the construction of an even stronger fortress exactly opposite the one built by
Bayezid I, a few miles north of Constantinople on its European side.
With the construction of this fortress, which came to be known as
the Rumeli Hisari, Sultan Muhammad ii ensured that no help from
its allies would be able to reach Constantinople through the waters
in between in times of war.
Sultan Muhammad ii employed the services of a Hungarian engineer,

Orban, to produce state of the art weapons to be used in the proposed
campaign; this included a 27 foot long cannon that could hurl a 1300
pound projectile over a mile. The master founder initially tried to sell
his services to the Byzantines, who were unable to secure the funds
needed to hire him. Orban then left Constantinople and approached
Sultan Muhammad ii, claiming that his weapon could blast the walls
of Babylon itself . Given abundant funds and materials, the Hungarian
engineer built the gun within three months at Adrianople, from which
it was dragged by sixty oxen to Constantinople.
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Sultan Muhammad ii expanded and strengthened his naval

fleet as well as his army, and in April 1453 commenced the siege of
Constantinople. His fleet extended from shore to shore in the form of
a crescent at the entrance of the Bosphorus, while his army positioned
itself to attack the city walls, which protected the city from its only
non-coastal side. Constantinople was now surrounded by Ottoman
forces from all sides.
An Extraordinary Plan
Sultan Muhammads massive cannon ball fired on the wall for weeks,
but because of its imprecision and the time it took to reload, the damage it caused was repaired after each shot before the next one could be
fired, thus limiting its effect. Mines were dug under the walls and filled
with ammunition that was then exploded to weaken their foundations,
but the walls were amongst the strongest fortified walls in existence
at the time and proved difficult to penetrate. A heavy chain had been
tied across the entrance of the Golden Horn, preventing the Ottoman
fleet from entering and attacking the city from that side.
When all options seemed closed, Allah inspired Sultan
Muhammad ii with an extraordinary plan, the likes of which had
never before been conceived even by the greatest of military minds.
To circumvent the chain, Sultan Muhammad ii ordered the clearing
of a path across the Galata on the North of the Golden Horn. A road
of greased logs was then laid out over the hills. A team of oxen then
pulled the Ottoman navys ships over the logs into the Golden Horn,
remarkably in the course of a single night. The next morning, the
Byzantine army discovered to their horror that the Ottoman navy was
now at their doorstep. The Ottoman navy now began bombarding
Constantinople from the Golden Horn.
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Shaykh Aaq Shemsuddins Duas

When the attack began, Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh wanted his
Shaykh to be by his side, supporting the Ottomans with his duas.
However, when the Sultans messenger approached the Shaykhs tent
to request him to accompany him, the guard on duty refused to
allow the messenger to enter. The Sultan, facing the greatest test of
his life, was deeply upset and himself went to his Shaykhs tent only
to discover that he too was refused entry as the Shaykh had explicitly
prohibited his guards from allowing anyone inside. The Sultan, still
deeply upset, took his dagger and cut open the side of the tent. Inside,
he found his Shaykh prostrating to Allah , beseeching the Almighty
to assist the Ottoman army. The Sultans heart was filled with peace
and he returned to his post and continued to lead the attack on
Constantinople.
The Opening of Constantinople

More Byzantine troops now had to be shifted to the unprecedented
front of the Golden Horn, weakening the defense of the citys walls on
the opposite side. Seeing this as an opportunity, Sultan Muhammad
ii launched an all-out offensive on that front. The Ottoman army
spent the night before this final onslaught in the remembrance of
Allah and Tahajjud prayers, exerting themselves in dua. After
Fajr prayers, the Sultan gave the orders for a general attack and
according to some narrations, he proclaimed that inshaAllah, the
Ottomans will pray the Zuhr prayer in the church of Ayasofya. On
May 29, 1453, after a siege that lasted for 53 days, the Prophet (saw)s
prediction was fulfilled and the Ottoman red standard was raised
over Constantinople.
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With his Shaykh just ahead of him, Sultan Muhammad entered the city
on his horse amidst a jubilant procession, triumphant, yet humble at
the recognition that this unprecedented success was entirely the blessing of His Creator. It was now that he was given the title of Al-Fateh,
The Conqueror. He went straight to the Hagia Sophia, but before
entering it, he took some dust and poured it over his turban as a sign
of his humility before Allah . He then entered what was formerly
the center of Christianity for a thousand years, and there he called the
azaan and performed Zuhr prayers together with his Shaykh. Those
who had taken refuge in the Church, believing that once there, Divine
help would keep them safe from invaders, were now fearful about their
fate. But the victorious sultan had been advised by his Shaykh to respect
the Shariah rules in relation to protection of conquered civilians, and
declared amnesty for them. Byzantine historian George Sphrantzes
was an eyewitness to the fall of Constantinople. In his chronicle about
the fall of the city, he wrote down the events that had taken place at
the end of the third day of the conquest:
On the third day after the fall of our city, the Sultan celebrated
his victory with a great, joyful triumph. He issued a proclamation:
the citizens of all ages who had managed to escape detection were to
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leave their hiding places throughout the city and come out into the
open, as they would remain free and no question would be asked. He
further declared the restoration of houses and property to those who
had abandoned our city before the siege, if they returned home they
would be treated according to their rank and religion, as if nothing
had changed.
After the conquest of Constantinople, the first sermon in the Hagia
Sophia was given by Shaykh Aaq Shemseddin, who is also reported
to have guided the Sultan to the location of the grave of Hazrat Abu
Ayub al-Ansari .
Interestingly, both the first and the last Byzantine emperors were
named Constantine; Constantine I founded Constantinople as the
capital of the Roman Empire a thousand years before the Muslim
conquest, and Constantine xi Palaiologos was the last Roman emperor
who was killed by the Muslims during the Ottoman siege. Constantine
xi Palaiologos was the last reigning Roman emperor to use the title
of Ceasar and after he was killed, there was no other Ceasar to take
his place, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Prophet as narrated
by Abu Hurayrah :

When Khusraw perishes, there will be no Khusraw after him,
and when Ceasar perishes, there will be no Ceasar after him, and
I swear by Him in Whose Hand is my soul, you shall surely spend
their treasures in the path of Allah . (Musnad Imam Ahmad).
After visiting the Panorama 1453 History Museum, we were all

filled with deep reverence for the conqueror who had received glad
tidings of being a good leader from the blessed mouth of the Prophet
himself, and we headed towards his final resting place to pay our
respects.
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Visit to Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh

After the Panorama Museum, we visited the burial place of Sultan
Muhammad al-Fateh at the Fateh Jami mosque to pay our respects to
this inspiring Muslim leader who had by now captured our hearts and
imagination. The Fateh Jami is located in the deeply religious Fateh
district of Istanbul, which is distinctly different from other areas of
the city. The atmosphere in Fateh district is distinctly religious; to this
day, it is a center of the Naqshbandi tariqah in Turkey and it was heartwarming to see so many Turks with full beards and in religious attire.
The Fateh Jami complex was constructed by the order of Sultan

Muhammad al-Fateh to commemorate his conquest of Istanbul
in 1453, and was the first imperial Ottoman mosque. The original
complex consisted of a set of well-planned buildings constructed
around the mosque, including eight madrasahs (schools of sacred
Islamic knowledge) accommodating up to 1000 students, a library,
hospital, hospice, caravanserai, market, public baths, primary
school and public kitchen, which served food to the poor. When
Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh conquered Constantinople he built a
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Naqshbandi khanqah in the Aksaray neighborhood of the city, and

assigned income from the waqf (charitable trust) of the Fateh Jami
complex to that khanqah.
After praying Asr and spending some time in the mosque we went
to Sultan Muhammad al-Fatehs tomb. There we learnt that at the
height of his highly successful military career, with plans of invading deeper into Europe, Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh was poisoned.
We wondered what the map of the world would have looked like
if this Master of Two Seas and Two Continents had indeed been
able to complete his planned campaigns in Egypt, Italy and the
Mediterranean. The thought was indeed awe-inspiring but Allah is
the Best of planners, and Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh succumbed
to the assassination attempt in May 1481, at the age of forty-nine.
Next to Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh s final resting place,
the caretakers of the mosque had put up a plaque reminding us
of the blessed words of the Prophet , You will indeed conquer
Constantinople, surely what a wonderful leader will its leader be and
surely what a wonderful army will that army be.
Another plaque on top of Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh s grave

reminded us that even the best of leaders must one day taste death.
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The tomb had closed by the time we got there but Hazrat led us
in collective dua from outside. Our hearts wept at how the Ummah
today had forsaken the efforts made by this great leader and lost the
spirit that drove him to open this part of the world for Islam; may
Allah grant him the highest place in Paradise. Ameen.
Understanding the Secret of the Ummahs Success
We returned to the hotel with a sense of joy at our glorious past, as
represented by Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh and his conquest of
Constantinople, yet saddened by the realization of our collective
decline since the Ottoman heyday. As if sensing our state, Hazrat sat
us down and talked to us about the causes of our decline, and identified clearly the way out of this abyss.
Hazrat explained that when we were motivated Muslims, exerting ourselves in the worship of our Lord, when our connection with
Allah was strong, and when we lived our lives in accordance with
His Will, we experienced the help of the Almighty in all our affairs.
This was a time about which Poet of the East, Muhammad Iqbal ,
said,
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Of all the brave warriors, there were none but only we,
Who fought Your battles on land and often on the sea
Our calls to prayer rang out from the churches of Europe,
And at times in Africas scorching desert sands
We ruled the world, but regal glories our eyes disdained,
Under the shades of glittering swords the kalima we proclaimed.
However, when we allowed love for the dunya to enter our hearts at
the expense of love for our Creator, when we made our nafs (lower
self ) our guide, when we abandoned adherence to the shariah and
the sunnah of the Prophet and adopted the ideals and ways of the
disbelievers, we deprived our own selves of the Help and Mercy of our
Lord and weakened ourselves before our enemies.
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Everyone is intoxicated with the wine of indulgence
Are you Muslims? Is this the way of Islam?
You have neither the faqr of Haider nor the wealth of Uthman
What spiritual connection do you have with your pious predecessors?
They were respected in the world for being Muslims
And you are disgraced for having abandoned the Quran.
As Iqbal was to ask most pertinently in Armaghaan-e-Hijaz,

Why is there not a storm in your waters?

Why is your self not Muslim?
You are always complaining about your fate,
Why are you yourself not the maker of your own destiny?
Hazrat then explained that the only way out of this disgraceful situation is to work on our inner selves. Love for the dunya is the cause
of our spiritual deaths; we must purge our hearts of it before we can
experience a spiritual reawakening and re-establish our connection
with our Lord. This renewed spirit would then inspire us to obey the
Almighty no matter what the odds, and would catapult us to the same
lofty heights that Muslims have experienced in the past.

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With the power of love, elevate the fallen to lofty heights

Illuminate the age with the name of Muhammad
Intellect is your shield, love is your sword
My dervish! The world is your caliphate
Your takbir is like fire for the Godless
If you are Muslim, your destiny is what you make it
If you are loyal to Muhammad , then We are yours
What of this world, the Tablet and the Pen are yours.
Because it cured sick hearts and breathed life into dead ones, the work
of the silsila is crucial to this solution.

If the imaan of Ibrahim is born even now

Fire can provide the comfort of a garden even now.
Knowing very well of our interest in Sultan Muhammads conquest

of Constantinople and of how inspired we were by it, at the end of
our session it was suggested that to gain a fuller picture we should
ourselves see some of the key places in this conquest: the Anodolu and
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Rumeli forts, the entry point for the Sultans naval forces, the Golden
Horn. One way of doing so was by boat, and we decided to venture
into the Bosphorus as soon as the weather would allow for it, which
happened sooner than anticipated.
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Lessons in History along the Bosphorus
It had been drizzling almost constantly since the time we arrived in
Istanbul, with the sky a gloomy grey and the air nippy. However, we
woke up the next morning to a clear blue sky, a bright cheerful sun,
and a pleasant springy breeze. The sudden change of weather raised
our hopes and after Hazrats approval, we rushed to book a boat for
our group. It seemed like most of the other foreign visitors in Istanbul
had the same idea! After much negotiating, we were able to find one
that was available only for the next two hours, so we rushed to make
it in time.
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The experience itself surpassed our expectations. The air was fresh,
the sun pleasantly warm, the scenery spectacular, and the company
(of our Hazrat) unmatched! The water in which we glided separated
the Asian and European sides of Turkey, and we were able to see
some important buildings at the periphery of the city, including the
Anodolu and Rumeli forts on either side. We got a feel for how Sultan
Muhammads naval ships must have approached Istanbul, and also
saw the gateway to the Golden Horn, imagining the frustration of
the Muslim fleet upon seeing it chained off.
From a distance we could also see the Suleymaniye Mosque, which

contains an important collection of Islamic manuscripts, as well
as the tomb of one of the greatest of Sultan Muhammad al-Fatehs
descendants the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman Al-Qanuni , who was
known in the West as Suleyman the Magnificent. Sultan Suleyman
spoke five languages including Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Persian,
Bosnian and Chaghtai. He studied the Shariah, science, history, literature and military strategy. Sultan Suleyman personally led the
Ottoman forces deep into Europe to the gates of Vienna; he is consid56
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ered the last khalifah8 to have personally led Muslims in the battlefield.
Turning to the Middle East, he renovated the Haramain of Makkah
Mukarramah and Madinah Munawwarah and defeated the treacherous Safavids of Iran. In Asia, he pursued the Portuguese colonialists to
the shores of India and even sent Ottoman support to the Sultanate
of Aceh in modern Indonesia. During Sultan Suleymans time, the
Ottomans were the only superpower of the world and thousands of
talented Europeans fulfilled their dream of immigrating to Ottoman
lands in what can be termed in todays language as a brain drain.
But his greatest legacy was probably his complete reorganization
of the Ottoman legal and administrative system for which he earned
the title of Al-Qanuni, the Law-giver. This law was the cornerstone of
the longevity of the Ottoman Empire for centuries to come. Sultan
Suleyman also had great reverence for the mashaikh of Naqshband
and built a mosque in Istanbul for Baba Haydar Samarqandi , one
of Khwaja UbaydUllah Ahrar s khulafa. Suleyman the Magnificent
passed away while he was out on a military campaign in Hungary. May
Allah grant him shade under His throne on the Day of Judgment.
Ameen.
Nearby is also the tomb of the greatest Muslim architect, Khwaja
Mimar Sinan Agha known in history simply as Sinan al-Mimaar, who
is credited with designing and building more mosques than anyone
else in the history of the Ummah. How unfortunate that our youth
know about Michelangelo and Leonardo di Vinci but do not know
who Sinan was!
Sinan converted to Islam at the age of 21 and joined the Ottoman
military service. He excelled in mathematics and also became a master
of artillery. As an architect, he paid attention to and learnt about
the weak points of buildings while gunning them down during military campaigns. In 1539 at the age of 50, he was appointed the chief
8 Here the term khalifah refers not to an authorized deputy in a spiritual order but
rather the legitimate political leader of the Muslims.
57
architect of the empire, applying the insight he had acquired in the

army to the creation of mosques and madrasahs and civic structures
of all kinds including roads, waterworks and bridges. Sinan trained
hundreds of assistants and supervised a team of master builders and
architects. During the next 50 years, Sinan led the construction
of more than 450 structures including 94 large mosques, 52 small
mosques, 57 madrasahs, 7 schools for training reciters of the Quran,
3 hospitals, 22 mausoleums, 17 public kitchens, 48 baths and 8 bridges.
His masterpieces include the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne and the
Suleimaniye in Istanbul.
From our boat, we also passed by the tomb of Barbarossa Hayreddin

Pasha, the great Muslim hero and Ottoman Admiral who, together
with his brother Aruj Reis, turned the Mediterranean Sea into a
Muslim lake and rescued numerous oppressed Spanish Muslims
who had been forced to convert to Christianity as a result of the
Reconquista of Andalusia. Near his tomb, the following poem is
engraved:
Whence on the seas horizon comes that roar?
Can it be Barbarossa now returning
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From Tunis or Algiers or from the Isles?
Two hundred vessels ride upon the waves,
Coming from lands the rising Crescent lights:
O blessed ships, from what seas are ye come?
Zikr on the Bosphorus

After a while we headed upstairs to the open deck to get a better view
of the historical sites. We were savoring every moment, wishing that
time would come to a standstill and we could remain like this forever.
Someone from the group read our hearts in requesting Hazrat to conduct muraqabah, which he agreed to do. Thus in the open sea under
the open sky, with the continent of Asia on one side and Europe on
the other side, and the distractions of the world seeming far behind us,
we sat in the remembrance of our Lord, the sweet voice of our Hazrat
pulling at our heartstrings as he read some beautiful verses during the
zikr. Hazrat then made dua, using words that we had not heard from
him before, referring to our unique situation. Oh Allah, when on
land we ask of You, now on water we are also asking only of You; oh
Allah, just as you granted Muslims success in taking over this part of
the world, grant us success in overcoming our nafs and Shaytan. We
approached the shore with brimming hearts and eyes.
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We had peeled and eaten pistachios on the upper deck and Hazrat
instructed us to clean up the mess the shells had made before we
got off the boat. Although the boat was fully serviced and the staff
on board even told us that they would take care of it later, Hazrat
insisted that as ambassadors of the Prophetic way we must not leave
behind our mess for others to clear up, and must set a good example
for others to follow.
A Visit to Eyup Sultan

Next we visited the resting place of Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari ,
who occupied a prominent and very special position amongst the
blessed Companions of the Prophet , being the first to host the
Messenger of Allah after his arrival in Madinah Munawwarah.
Since it was the weekend, the place was teeming with people, including both locals and tourists. The Turkish people, regardless of their
secular appearances and lifestyles, have a deep love and reverence for
religious personalities in their hearts. We learnt that many newly-wed
couples came straight from their nikah ceremonies to begin their lives
together with the blessings of the final resting place of the Companion
of the Prophet , known to them as Eyup Sultan. The Ottomans held
this place in such high esteem that no Ottoman caliph was permitted
to take office until he was girded with the sword of Osman Ghazi at
this sacred site. The area of Eyup also has a deep connection with the
Naqshbandi tariqah, as one of the khulafa of Khwaja UbaydUllah
Ahrar Baba Haydar Samarqandi settled in Eyup and is
buried here.
We gave our respects at his burial site, and despite the rush of people,
found a remarkably calm and peaceful place to make dua. This was
not the first time we had been thus accommodated in crowded spaces
when with Hazrat. We remembered the time we traveled with Hazrat
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to Syria. In the graveyard of the Companions of the Prophet in

Damascus, members of the group initially went without Hazrat to
pay their respects at the tomb of Hazrat Bilal ; Hazrat had decided
to wait for us close to the entrance of the graveyard, finding the long
walk to the grave difficult. The site was teeming with people and we
made our way in with great difficulty, being forced out by the incoming
mob after only a few moments. Later, the driver took us to another
entrance which was much closer to the blessed resting place, from
where it was possible for Hazrat to walk over, and he decided to do
so. As soon as Hazrat walked in, the other visitors started leaving the
room until we were the only people remaining besides the grave. At the
same place where we had found it difficult to stand for long enough
to read the Fatiha, we now sat in muraqabah and were led in dua by
Hazrat, without even being disturbed. Later when we mentioned to
Hazrat the stark difference between our experience at the gravesite
with and without him, he smiled and said, Allah showed mercy
towards the weak. So here again, amidst a sea of people, we raised
our hands in unison with his, hoping that Allah would shower us
faqirs with the same blessings that His wali was asking of Him.
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Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari

His full name was Khalid bin Zaid bin Kulayb and he belonged
to the tribe of Banu Najjar in Madinah Munawwarah and was thus a
relative of the Prophet from his blessed mothers side of the family.
When the Prophet reached Madinah Munawwarah, he was
greeted with great enthusiasm by the Muslims of the blessed city. This
was the moment they had all been waiting for, and they wanted to give
him the most generous reception. He entered the city on his camel,
and the chieftains of the city stood along his path, each one wishing
that the Prophet would choose him as his initial host. One after
the other they stood in the camels way beseeching the Prophet to
stay with them. The Prophet would ask them to leave the camel
alone, indicating that it was being directed by Allah .
The camel continued walking, closely followed by the eyes and
hearts of the people of city. When it went past a house, its owner
would feel sad and disappointed, while those whose houses were still
to come on the route would become hopeful. The camel continued in
this manner until it hesitated in an open space in front of the house
of Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari . But the Prophet did not get
down immediately. Shortly thereafter, the camel set off again, the
Prophet leaving its reins loose. Before long, however, it turned
round, retraced its steps and halted at the same spot as before. Hazrat
Abu Ayub s joy was beyond words. He greeted the Prophet with
great enthusiasm and took his luggage in his arms, as if carrying the
most precious treasure in the world.
Hazrat Abu Ayub s house had two floors. He cleared the upper
floor, removing his belongings so that his most venerable guest could
stay there. But the Prophet preferred to stay on the lower floor.
When he retired for the night, Hazrat Abu Ayub went to the
upper floor to sleep. But upon closing the door, he turned to his wife
and said: Woe to us! What have we done? The Messenger of God
is below and we are higher than he! Can we walk on top of the
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Messenger of God ? Do we come between him and the Revelation?

If so, then we are doomed.
The couple became very worried at what they considered improper
etiquette and at the prospect of interrupting the revelation. They
moved to the side of the building which did not fall directly above
the Prophet and were careful to walk along the edges of the floor
and avoid the middle. In the morning, Hazrat Abu Ayub said to
the Prophet , By God, we did not sleep a wink last night, neither
I nor Umm Ayub. When the Prophet asked why, Hazrat Abu
Ayub explained their concerns. The Prophet put him at ease and
explained that he preferred the lower floor because it was convenient
for the many people who came to visit him.
They submitted to the Prophets wishes until one cold night a jar
of water broke and its contents spilled on the upper floor. They stared
at the water in horror, and used the one blanket they had to quickly
mop up the water out of fear that it would seep through the floor and
fall upon the Prophet . In the morning Hazrat Abu Ayub went
to his esteemed guest and narrated what had happened, pleading
before him to switch floors. The Prophet accepted his wish and
moved upstairs.
The Prophet stayed in Hazrat Abu Ayubs house for almost seven
months until his mosque was completed on the piece of land where
his camel had initially stopped, which was bought for the purpose
by Hazrat Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq from the two orphan boys that
owned it. He then shifted to the private quarters constructed around
the mosque for him and his family, thus becoming Hazrat Abu Ayub
s neighbor.
Hazrat Abu Ayub continued to love the Prophet with all his
heart, and the Prophet also loved him dearly. There was no formality
between them. The Messenger of Allah continued to regard Hazrat
Abu Ayub s house as his own. One day Hazrat Abu Bakr left
his house in the scorching heat of the afternoon and headed for the
mosque. Hazrat Umar saw him and asked, Abu Bakr, what has
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brought you out at this hour? Hazrat Abu Bakr explained that he
had been driven out of his house by painful pangs of hunger; Hazrat
Umar informed him that he had left his house for the same reason.
The Prophet came up to them and asked them what had brought
them out at this hour. They told him, upon which he responded, By
Him in Whose hands is my soul, only hunger has caused me to come
out also. But come with me.
They went to the house of Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari . His wife
opened the door and said, Welcome to the Prophet and whoever
is with him. The Prophet inquired about Hazrat Abu Ayub s
whereabouts and was informed that he was not at home. However,
he was working in a nearby palm grove and when he learnt of the
Prophet s arrival, he hurriedly returned home. Welcome to the
Prophet and whoever is with him, he said. Hazrat Abu Ayub
would keep some food for the Prophet every day, and only when
the Prophet had not come for it by a certain time would he give it
to his family. Oh Prophet of Allah , this is not the time that you
usually come, he questioned. You are right, the Prophet affirmed.
Hazrat Abu Ayub understood the reason for the visit; he went to
his garden and cut a cluster of dates which included both ripe and
half-ripe dates. I did not want you to cut this, said the Prophet
referring to the half-ripe dates, fearing that Hazrat Abu Ayub had
deprived himself of future profit by bringing them for him; could
you not have brought only the ripe dates?
O Messenger of Allah , please eat from both the rutb (ripe dates)
and the busr (half ripe dates). I shall slaughter an animal for you also.
If you are going to, then do not kill one that gives milk, cautioned
the Prophet , worried about the fate of the calves that depended on
their mothers milk for nourishment.
Hazrat Abu Ayub slaughtered a young goat, cooked half and
grilled the other half. He also asked his wife to bake something,
because she baked well. When the food was ready, he placed it before
the Prophet and his two Companions. The Prophet took a
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piece of meat, placed it in some bread and said, Abu Ayub, take this
to Fatima. She has not tasted the like of this for days.
When they had eaten until they were satiated, the Prophet said
reflectively, Bread and meat, and busr and rutb! Tears began to flow
from his eyes as he continued, this is a bountiful blessing about which
you will be asked on the Day of Judgment. If such comes your way,
put your hands to it and say ( In the name of Allah) and when
you have finished say, ( Praise be to Allah Who
has satiated us and has bestowed His bounty upon us). This is best.
Such was Hazrat Abu Ayub s good fortune, to be host to the
Best of Creation and to serve him in his time of need. We have
learnt from our Shaykh that a dua made in relevance to a situation we
are in is more likely to be accepted. So we prayed at the grave of this
special Companion to also grant us the special honor of serving His
chosen people, the inheritors of the Prophet .
Much of Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari s life was spent in the path
of Allah . It was said of him that the only thing that kept him from
participating in a battle fought by the Muslims from the time of the
Prophet to the time of Ameer Muawiyah was his engagement
at the same time in another. The last campaign in which he took part
was the one sent by Ameer Muawiyah to open Constantinople for
Islam. Hazrat Abu Ayub at that time was a very old man, almost
eighty years old, but that did not prevent him from joining the army.
Shortly after the campaign began, Hazrat Abu Ayub fell ill and
had to withdraw from fighting. The commander of the army came to
him and asked him if he had any last wishes. He replied, Convey my
salaams to the Muslim armies and say to them that Abu Ayub urges
you to penetrate deeply into the territory of the enemy as far as you
can go; that you should carry him with you and bury him under the
walls of Constantinople. Thereafter, he breathed his last. The Muslim
army fulfilled the desire of this great Companion of the Messenger of
Allah . They pushed back the enemy until they reached the walls
of Constantinople. The Muslims besieged the city for four years but
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eventually had to withdraw after suffering heavy losses; however, they

were able to bury Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari as per his last wish.
It is said that such noor emanated from his burial site that in years to
come even Christians would visit it for the attainment of blessing.
The King of Hearts at Eyup Sultan
As we left the complex mosque after praying Asr, we were mobbed by
dozens of fellow-visitors to the shrine including traditional Turkish
students of sacred knowledge. They completely encircled us, trying
to touch Hazrat, attempting to shake and kiss his hands. They were
helplessly drawn towards him by the magnetic pull that his heart cast
on their hearts, without themselves understanding the reason for this
attraction. One persistent old lady even insisted on trying to touch
him for barakah and it took a lot of effort on our part to shield him
from her attempts!
We eased our way out of the enthusiastic crowd and quickened our
pace towards our bus. We headed straight for our hotel to prepare for
our overnight trip to Konya, the scene of one of the greatest love stories
of all times, between Maulana Rumi and his Shaykh, Shamsuddin
Tabriz , and between Maulana Rumi and his Lord. We were
all looking forward to this visit of one king of hearts to another and
thought to ourselves,
Oh what a spectacle it will be when two lovers (of Allah) come together...
Journey to Konya
The flight to Konya was short and sweet, which was a real blessing
considering how exhausted we all were. As soon as we landed in Konya,
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a strange, sweet feeling enveloped our hearts; it was as if the love of

Allah perfumed the very air of this city. Upon reaching our hotel
in Konya, we headed straight for our rooms and retired for the night.
From the windows of our hotel rooms we could see the turquoise
dome atop Maulana Rumis tomb, and what a beautiful sight it was.
It was very difficult to sleep that night as there was a strange
spiritual attraction that kept pulling our hearts to Maulana Rumis
khanqah, and we eagerly awaited the morning to visit the sanctuary
about which Maulana Rumi himself claimed:
This place is the Kaaba of lovers
Those who enter it with deficiencies, become complete.
As we gazed out of our window at the unusually attractive dome atop

the Maulanas khanqah, we were reminded of the verse that Hazrat
recited when he set foot on the Blessed Koh-e-Tur (Mount Sinai) in
Egypt:
Where did I not travel in search of You
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The seventh century was a time when Ilm-ul-Kalaam (Islamic theology) dominated discourse throughout the Muslim world, to the extent
that anyone who could not partake in a discussion on Islamic doctrine
was considered uneducated. In the absence of spiritual theologians
like Imam Razi and Imam Ghazzali, this debate was often reduced to
a redundant exchange of empty words, which failed to satisfy probing intellects or provide peace to restless hearts. The spirit of Islam,
wherein lay the real strength of this Ummah, was missing. In this time,
Allah inspired Maulana Rumi with the language of love to revive
dead hearts and light the fire of Divine love in the hearts of not just
his contemporaries, but of seekers for centuries to come.
His name was Muhammad, his title Jalaluddin, and he became
known to the world as Maulana Rumi. He was born on the sixth of
Rabi ul Awwal, in 604 ah in a family of religious scholars and noblemen in the city of Balkh in Khurasan, Mazar-e-Sharif in present-day
Afghanistan. His father Baha-uddin Walad, who traced his lineage
from Hazrat Abu Bakr as-Siddiq , later moved to Anatolia, once
the base of the Eastern Roman Empire, in the wake of the Mongol
invasion; it is because of his association with Anatolia (known as
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Rum in Turkish and Persian) that Maulana Jalaluddin came to be

known as al-Rumi. Circumstances forced his father to migrate with
the family to Konya in 626 AH. His father, Muhammad Baha-uddin
was a renowned scholar and Shaykh who ensured that his son received
a sound education from a young age, and Maulana Rumi continued
this pursuit of knowledge after his fathers death, travelling to Syria,
which was then a major center of knowledge in the Muslim world.
Upon his return from Damascus, he began teaching in Konya, which
replaced Damascus as the new center of knowledge after the death
of Shaykh Ibn-e-Arabi, attracting scholars and seekers from his circle
as well as those fleeing troubles in the East. His madrasah had more
than 400 students, and he delivered sermons amongst many more,
and was also involved in issuing legal rulings.
His teaching and legal career continued to flourish, until in 642
ah, a fateful encounter with a wandering dervish from Persia caused
a spiritual revolution in his inner life. As he, himself, was to later say,
Maulavi did not become Maulana Rumi

Until he became the slave of Shams Tabriz.
Born Muhammad bin Ali bin Malik Daad, Shams Tabriz from an
early age carried within his heart the flame of love for Allah . He
had not yet reached puberty when his state of preoccupation with the
remembrance of his Beloved was such that he went without food for up
to forty days at a stretch. Shams Tabriz yearned to find a soul-mate
worthy of his companionship, of becoming his spiritual inheritor. He
travelled far and wide in his search, concealing his identity from those
he encountered along the way, but all in vain. He told his Shaykh, Baba
Kamal , that he had a lot on his chest which he could not adequately
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express in words, and was told that he was soon to meet a person who
will become his tongue. Finally, his Shaykh advised him to visit Rum,
for there he would find a heart that he could fill with light from his
own, the one through whom his state would find expression.
Thereafter Shams Tabriz travelled to Konya and took up
residence in a neighborhood of sugar merchants. Regarding the first
encounter between the ocean of Divine love and marifah (knowledge)
and the thirsty seeker, it is reported that one day Maulana Rumi was
riding his horse on the way to the mosque when Shams Tabriz
stopped him and asked: Tell me, who is greater, Bayazid Bustami
or Muhammad ? Maulana Rumis answer was obvious, that
Muhammad is the best of creation, how then can he even be compared to Bayazid Bustami who, despite his stature as a scholar, was
only an ummati? Shams Tabriz replied: The Prophet said
( We were not able to know you, oh Allah, the way You deserve
to be known), whereas Bayazid Bustami declared ( Oh how
great is my achievement (in knowing Him)!). Maulana Rumi, who
was a great scholar of the Shariah but had not yet deeply understood
sulook, was perturbed by this response, and requested Shams Tabriz
for further elaboration. Shams Tabriz then explained that the
difference is on account of each persons capacity. Muhammad had
an unlimited capacity to drink from the river of marifah, so no matter how much he drank, it seemed meager in comparison with how
much could be obtained. But Bayazid had a much more limited
capacity compared to the Prophet , so after drinking only a glass
of that spiritual wine, he felt satiated.
Another day, Maulana Rumi was reading under the shade of a tree
by a river, a pile of books besides himaccording to one variation he
was teaching a group of his students with a pile of hand-written notes
next to him when Shams Tabriz came by. He asked Maulana
what was going on and he replied This is qaal (words), something
you cannot understand. Shams Tabriz then took Maulanas precious books and threw them in the water. Maulana was aghast. Shams
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Tabriz then recited Bismillah and pulled the books out of the
water and dusted the water off them as if he was dusting sand; the
pages thus dried and Maulana saw that the ink on them had not run
despite having been soaked in water. Maulana was amazed and asked
incredulously, what is this. This is haal (spiritual state), something
you cannot understand, replied Shams Tabriz .
These tawajjuh-laden words of Shams Tabriz changed Maulana
Rumis life forever. He was deeply affected and took Shams Tabriz
to the house of his close friend Salahuddin Zarkub, where they
remained in isolation with each other for 40 days 6 months according to some accountswith no one being allowed to intrude except
the host. There, in the company of his new teacher, Maulana Rumi
experienced a spiritual revolution in his inner self.
The result of his intense devotion to his new teacher was a disinterest
in his own teaching activities, which greatly irked his students and they
turned against Shams Tabriz . At first, Shams Tabriz tolerated
their animosity but eventually was driven by it to leave Konya unannounced, about a year and four months after initially arriving there.
Maulana was traumatized by this sudden departure of his beloved
Shaykh and, contrary to what his students had hoped for, lost whatever
little remaining interest he had in them. As he was later to say:

Oh my beloved since you have left me, my life has become bitter,
Restfulness has become far removed from my soul.
He remained completely cut off from people until he received a letter from Shams Tabriz originating in Damascus, after which he
resumed benefitting those of his students who were not involved in
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the conspiracy against his teacher. As the voices of dissent quieted

down and Maulana Rumi became convinced that it was safe for Shams
Tabriz to return to Konya, he sent his son to Damascus to bring
back his teacher. His Shaykh returned, and Maulana was overjoyed.
During his second stint in Konya, the bonds between Shaykh and
murid (spiritual disciple) grew ever stronger. However, not much time
had elapsed before trouble started brewing again, and this time the
situation became much worse, involving Maulanas own sons. Shams
Tabriz decided it was again time to leave.
The next morning when Maulana discovered that Shams Tabriz
was again missing, he screamed in anguish. He searched for his teacher
everywhere but to no avail. This time around, Maulana completely cut
himself off from those who had been involved in driving his Shaykh
away, and composed some heart-rending pieces of poetry in memory
of his teacher. He decided to travel to Syria in search of him, and
undertook the journey in the company of a few close companions.
There he baffled people by his longing for the one he sought, and they
wondered who this Shams Tabriz was, whose absence was driving this
notable personality to near-insanity. His search ended in vain.
At this point Maulana came to the realization that he and Shams
Tabriz were not two separate entities; if Shams was the sun, he
was a speck in it; if Shams was a river, he was a drop of water in it.
The existence of the speck is with the existence of the sun, just as the
drop of water owed its wetness to the river of which it was a part. So
there was no real difference between the two. With these thoughts,
Maulana returned to Konya.
A few years later, the intense love that Maulana felt for his teacher
compelled him to undertake another journey to Syria in search of
Shams Tabriz . He returned alone, but with a feeling of oneness
with his Shaykh, the feeling that the one he had been searching for
was, after all, inside his own self. After this, Maulana lost all hope
of ever meeting his teacher again, but the spiritual state that he had
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observed in Shams Tabriz, he began to find in himself. In the words

of Amir Khusro9,
I am you, you are me;

I am the body, you are the soul.
So that no one can say hereafter,
That you are someone else, and I someone else.
Maulana Rumi now made Salahuddin Zarkub his closest companion, a

choice that again irked his students and other contenders for this position since Salahuddin Zarkub was an ordinary man in their eyes, with
no intellectual achievements to boast of. After Salahuddin Zarkubs
death some 10 years later, this intimacy was enjoyed by Maulanas closest murid and khalifa, Shaykh Hisamuddin. It was during this period,
with the support and encouragement of Shaykh Hisamuddin, that
Maulana Rumi composed his magnum opus, the Mathnavi.
It is reported that prior to Maulanas death, Konya was jolted by
earthquakes for forty days. When people approached him regarding
this, Maulana indicated that the earth was hungry for him. During the
illness that became the cause of his death, some other religious elders
of the area came to visit him and prayed for his swift recovery. He
9 Amir Khusro was the beloved murid of Hazrat Nizamuddin Awliya , one of
the most prominent Chishti saints of the Indian sub-continent. The love between this
shaykh and murid is legendary; Nizamuddin Awliya is himself reported to have said
that if the Shariah had allowed for it, he would have willed for him and Amir Khusro
to be buried in the same grave.
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responded by saying that there was just a thin barrier remaining between
a lover and his Beloved; do you not wish for it to be removed, so that
light may be merged with light? As one of the pious predecessors said:
Death is a bridge that unites one lover with another.
Maulana Rumi passed away on the 5th of Jamad ul Awwal, 672 ah

at the age of 68. His body was accompanied by so many people to its
final resting place that it took from morning to evening for it to reach
the graveyard. As Iqbal said:

No Rumi was born again from the orchards of the non-Arab world
The clay and water of Persia are the same and the same Tabriz is
the thirst-quencher.
Visit to Maulana Rumi s Shrine

Maulana Rumi s former khanqah was converted into a museum in
1927 and today functions as both museum and shrine. In its main room,
the Mevlana Turbesi, is the tomb of Maulana , covered with a large
velvet cloth embroidered in gold. The tombs of Maulana Rumi s
father, son and other mashaikh are clustered around his grave. Their
graves are capped with huge turbans to mark their elevated status.
As we entered Maulana Rumi s khanqah, a Turkish guide
approached us and offered us his services. Although Hazrat is usually
very interested in history and historical artifacts, at this point he did
not seem intrigued by a guided tour of the khanqah. Instead, he pushed
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this faqir forward to interact with the guide so that the guides feelings would not be hurt. Allah knows best, but it seemed as if Hazrats
heart had now tuned into a different reality. As we moved to Maulana
Rumi s tomb, we quickly read Surat-al-fatiha and moved on to the
museum, as the area around his tomb was crowded by tourists.
The museum exhibits a large number of items associated with the

Maulanas life. They include silver keys, copies of the noble Quran,
and lamps and robes used by the Maulana. There are also a number
of prayer-mats. A large hand-written copy of the Mathnavi of the
Maulana is displayed in the hall. Within one room there is a casket
containing a hair from the beard of the Prophet .
After quickly finishing the museum tour, Hazrat unexpectedly told
this faqir that he wanted to do muraqabah, and that we should find
a place near Maulana for this purpose. Now, I was worried. Where
were we going to find a place to do muraqabah amidst these throngs
of tourists where just a short while ago it was difficult even to stand for
Fatiha? Furthermore, how were we going to convince the strict security
guards that we needed to sit down close to Maulanas tomb for zikr?
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But Allah opened the way for us as he always does when we are
with Hazrat. As our group moved closer to Maulanas resting place,
the tourists began to move back. Hazrat sat next to the resting place
and lowered his head for muraqabah. We followed his example and
tried to drown ourselves in the remembrance of Allah , intoxicated
by the strange feeling that prevailed throughout this city of lovers
and was most intense besides this Chief of Lovers. Throughout the
muraqabah, the tourists stared at Hazrat leading us in zikr. Amazingly,
even the security guards who we feared would ask us to get up, instead
watched and guarded over us the entire time we sat there.
After muraqabah, Hazrat lifted his head and hands and made one
of the most beautiful duas we had ever heard him make. We raised our
hands along with him, while Hazrat beseeched Allah to accept our
attendance at this blessed place, to fill our hearts with His ishq and
include us in the ranks of His true lovers, to fill our hearts with his
marifah and include us in the ranks of his arifeen (knowers of Allah ).
With tears in our eyes, we made our way out of the khanqah into
the gardens. There, our Turkish guide excitedly insisted that he wanted
to show me something very special. Hazrat encouraged me to oblige
him and the guide led me through what seemed like a maze of gardens
to a plaque that read Muhammad Iqbal.
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The guide explained that although Iqbal was not buried here in
Konya, as he was a spiritual son of Maulana, the authorities wanted
to honour him through this plaque. Iqbal himself acknowledged his
spiritual debt to Maulana Rumi in several verses, including these
ones in Asrar-i-Khudi,
His soul is the flaming furnace,

I am but as the spark that gleams for a moment,
His burning candle consumed me - the moth;
His wine overwhelmed my goblet,
The master of Rum transmuted my earth to gold
And set my ashes aflame.
Towards the end of our tour of the museum, the guide explained that
this complex served as the khanqah of Maulana Rumi , and that
murids would come here from far and wide for their correction. Any
new murid would follow a set regimen of service in order to erase his
nafs, which first included forty days of looking after the cattle of the
khanqah. Then, for forty days, the murid would sweep the doorsteps
of the other murids rooms with a broom. Then, the next forty days
would be spent in drawing water from the well for the residents of the
khanqah. Similar forty day periods would be spent in other tasks such
as serving in the khanqahs kitchen as a cook and being responsible
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for buying groceries for the khanqah. After passing through all these
stages, the murid would take a bath and repent from his past life. Then,
he would be taught the zikr of the tariqah.
When Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar (db) heard this, he requested
Hazrat to make dua that Allah bless them with such a khanqah in
America, so that those who are spiritually diseased may have a spiritual
hospital to come to in order to cure themselves of their ailments.
Before we left the khanqah, Hazrat drew our attention to a plaque
on top of the doorway of the khanqah which read:
This place is the Kaaba of lovers,

Those who come here with deficiencies, become complete.
Visit to Shams Tabrizs Shrine

From the shrine of Maulana Rumi we went by bus to what is known
as the shrine of Hazrat Shams Tabriz . While the site may indeed
have been a place where the great Shaykh spent some time, the claim
of it being his final resting place is unverified. The truth is that no one
really knows where this lover of Allah went after he left Konya, and
which land was blessed to be his final resting place.
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A Moth around a Flame

As we were exiting the shrine, a Turkish man came up to Hazrat and
began going round and round him as if doing tawaf, like a moth circling a flame in loving devotion. His action was very inappropriate and
made Hazrat and the rest of us very uncomfortable, but we understood
that he found no other way of expressing the extent of his love.
We had by now become accustomed to the unusual ways in which
people responded to the power that this king of hearts wielded on their
hearts, and nothing surprised us anymore. Surely the most miraculous
demonstration of this power were the dramatic changes in the lives
of countless individuals around the globe, who abandoned lives of
heedlessness and sin and adopted a life of adherence to the Shariah
and Sunnah after meeting Hazrat. As one poet rightly said,
The effect of the glance of a Wali is such

That we have seen the destiny of thousands change with it.
In truth, it is this tawajjuh of our Shaykh that us fuqara came to Turkey

seeking, for one never knows when and where that decisive moment
may come when one meaningful glance completely changes the world
of our hearts forever.
Maulana Rumi s Spiritual Stature

After the visits to Maulana Rumi and Shams Tabriz , Hazrat said
that he sensed an incredible amount of anwaaraat (spiritual illumination) at Maulana Rumis tomb (during the muraqabah), an indication
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that his faiz (spiritual benefit) had truly spread very far and wide.
Hazrat explained that throughout the centuries, countless ulema and
mashaikh had benefited from Maulanas poetry, and in turn they had
benefitted innumerable others. Hazrat said that this happens when
someone serves the deen of Allah with complete ikhlaas (sincerity),
as Maulana Rumi had done.
Abandoned Traditional Schools of Learning
After leaving the khanqah, we made a quick tour by bus of other places
of historical significance in Konya. We quickly stopped by several nowabandoned traditional schools of learning. These were the palaces of
knowledge where once the Quran was memorized, the hadith of the
Prophet and fiqh was taught, and where the hearts of students of
sacred knowledge were illuminated.
It was very sad to see that these schools of learning had now been
abandoned.

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Your gathering is gone, and Your lovers have all left

The nights sighs are gone and the dawns wailings can no longer
be heard
They had given You their hearts, they have reaped their rewards
They had hardly settled down when they were made to leave.
This faqir was reminded of the time we were in Cairo with Hazrat and
had just exited Masjid al-Hussein , which is located in Old Cairo.
In this part of Cairo, we were amazed to see row after row of old
abandoned madrasahs and asked Hazrat about this. Hazrat remarked
that this used to be the neighborhood of the ulema in centuries past.
However, the descendants of these ulema abandoned these palaces of
knowledge, and these schools were now empty. Hazrat then said that
when we visit other parts of the Muslim world, we cannot help but
appreciate the tremendous efforts and sacrifices that have been made
by our ulemathe ulema of Deoband in repeatedly reviving the
deen and the schools of sacred knowledge. It is because of the sacrifices
of these elders in the deen that even today these gardens and palaces
of knowledge continue to flourish in our native lands, and are filled
with the melodious voices of seekers of sacred knowledge.
Our Naqshbandi Khanqah in Konya

When we returned to our hotel, Hazrat went straight into his room
to rest. Later that evening we went down to the basement of our hotel
to offer our Maghrib prayers and were joined there by Hazrat.
After we performed out prayers, this little basement was transformed into a khanqah and we were blessed with the priceless opportunity to sit at the feet of our beloved Shaykh, under his transformative
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gaze, and benefit from his knowledge and wisdom. Members of the
group took turns to ask Hazrat their questions, and Hazrat answered
each one patiently, encouraging the quieter members of the group
to present their queries, and the more vocal amongst them to give
others a chance. It is these moments that us faqirs live for, and live by.
Captivated by the extraordinary relationship between Maulana
Rumi and his teacher, our questions were centered mostly on the
relationship between shaykh and murid, and concerned the spiritual
path in general.
Understanding Maulana Rumi and the Masnavi

Someone asked for a clarification of what had been written regarding Maulana Rumi , that he needed a muharrik, a companion who
would act as a stimulator, so that Maulanas spiritual state might find
expression. Hazrat explained that Maulana Rumis poetry was the
poetry of haal. So he needed someone with him all the time who
could pen the words that flowed from his tongue. Maulana Rumi had
become spiritually intoxicated (mast) in his state, and such a person is
not able to do things for himself, he needs a helper to be productive. A
helper, Hazrat explained, was a more appropriate way of understanding the role played by his close companions.
Hazrat then elaborated that because the Mathnavi contained so
many fine points of tasawwuf, it served as a treasure of marifah for
many salasil (spiritual chains). Those seekers who did not have the
opportunity to learn the sulook from their mashaikh would fill in the
gaps with the wisdom contained in the verses of Maulana Rumi . It
was for this reason that Muhammad Iqbal referred to Maulana Rumi
as Peer-e-Rumi, and to himself the as the Murid-e-Hindi. Mashaikh
of the Naqshbandi silsila, however, took more from the Maktubaat
(letters) of Imam-e-Rabbani, Hazrat Mujaddid Alf-e-Sani, Shaykh
Ahmed Sirhindi.
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The questioner then asked regarding Maulana Rumis choice of

close companions, his preference for those of the same personality
type as him, and his claim that in relationships with people who
are at the same mental wavelength as oneself, there is little remorse.
Hazrat explained that Maulana Rumi preferred the closeness and
companionship of those with whom his personality matched. Where
there was a matching of personalities, love flowed naturally and
there would be less formality, and all problems between people arose
because of formality. The love that flowed naturally between two
hearts was durable, and with such love there were fewer chances of
causing or getting hurt. Hence the foundation of love is the matching
of personalities.
Referring to the verse inscribed at the entrance of Maulana Rumis
shrine, This place is the Kaaba of lovers; those who come here with
deficiencies, become complete, someone asked if this transformation
was limited to the time of Maulana Rumi or could be attained by
visiting his khanqah even now. Hazrat explained that the khanqah of
this Syed-ul-Ushaaq (Chief of the Lovers) was a place where seekers
found the love of Allah in his company during his lifetime. However,
the effects of the lovers of Allah linger on in the places associated
with them in times to come.
On the Capacity to Accept Spiritual Benefit

Someone asked how it was possible that Maulana Rumi could
attain so much spiritual benefit from Shams Tabriz in such a short
period of time. Hazrat responded by saying that faiz can actually be
transferred in an even shorter amount of time, in a matter of mere
moments. He explained that Maulana Rumi had immense Godgiven capacity to receive faiz; he merely needed to be triggered in
order to rise to great heights. Hazrat explained that different people
have different natural capacities; some are like 50 watt bulbs, some
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150, some 250 and so on. The more capacity a person has, the quicker
and more complete is the transfer of faiz from teacher to student.
Maulana Rumi was like a 500 watt bulb who just needed the button
to be turned on, which is what Shams Tabriz did.
Hazrat further elaborated that the capacity to accept spiritual
benefit is dependent on five things: zikr, ilm (knowledge), aajizi
(humility), husn-e-khulq (moral character), khidmat-e-Shaykh (service
of the Shaykh). All these are subsumed under the three principles of
our silsilah, namely zikr, ittiba-e-Sunnah (following the Sunnah of
the Prophet ) and muhabbat-e-Shaykh (love of the Shaykh), the
first one being the fuel that drives our spiritual progress and the latter two being the wings with which we can fly towards Allah . The
questioner asked if any of these can be omitted, and Hazrat in return
asked rhetorically if flying was possible if one wing was cut off; zikre-ilahi, itteba-e-sunnat, and muhabbat-e-shaykh are all necessary for
progress on the sulook, he reiterated.
The questioner then referred to the story of Hazrat Baqi Billah
and his murid, a bread maker who would bring bread for his Shaykh
everyday at mealtime. One day it was raining heavily and Hazrat Baqi
Billah did not expect this murid to bring bread for him in this
extreme weather, when suddenly there was a knock at the door. Upon
opening the door, Hazrat Baqi Billah discovered his dedicated
student standing outside, soaking wet, bearing bread for his Shaykh.
Hazrat Baqi Billah was so moved by this act of love shown by his
murid that he asked the man what he wanted in return. The intelligent
student told Hazrat that he wanted to be just like him. Hazrat hugged
him and transferred the noor of nisbat from his heart into the heart
of his murid. It is said that as a result the murid became so much like
his teacher, he even began to resemble him physically.
The questioner asked how it was possible for this murid of Hazrat
Baqi Billah to benefit so much and so quickly from his shaykh
when, unlike Maulana Rumi , he did not seem to have the capacity
to receive these spiritual treasures. Hazrat explained that sometimes
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Allah decides that nisbat has to be transferred into a person and

makes the shaykh a means for this transfer. He creates such a state in
the heart of the shaykh that he is compelled to transfer what is in his
heart into the heart of his murid, whether he had initially intended
to or not, and despite absence of capacity in the student. Sometimes,
Hazrat said, the shaykh himself cries and begs Allah to allow him
to transfer nisbat to a particular murid. Hazrat gave the example
of Hazrat Mujaddid Alf-e-Sani, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi , who
beseeched Allah for permission to transfer the noor of nisbat into
a murid, Maulana Tahir Lahori about whom he himself said that
he saw the word badnaseeb (wretched) written on his face. The result
of this pleading by his shaykh was that this murid of Shaykh Ahmad
Sirhindi attained the noor of the nisbat from his Shaykh. Hence,
Hazrat advised that a salik must aim to win the favor of Allah ; the
maqbool of Allah was the maqbool of the Prophet , the maqbool
of the shaykh, the maqbool of all of creation. When asked how one
could win the pleasure of Allah so that He makes the Shaykh the
means for attainment of the noor of nisbat, Hazrat replied that this
could be done through acts of worship and duas. The highest act of
worship, Hazrat added, was leaving sin.
Hazrat mentioned that there were two other questions that were
relevant here. First, as the story continues, the bread-maker murid
of Hazrat Baqi Billah died within three days of attaining nisbat
from his Shaykh. One can ask why this happened. The answer, Hazrat
explained, is that he did not have the capacity to accept this nisbat; he
received in an instant what Hazrat Baqi Billah had attained after
a lifetime of hard work. Hazrat gave the example of the growth of a
fetus in the womb of its mother. As the fetus grows bigger the womb
that carries it expands accordingly, making it easy for the mother to
carry the load. However, if a nine-month old fetus was to be implanted
in the womb of a woman who was not bearing a child, that woman
would not be able to sustain this burden and would die as a result.
The second question, Hazrat explained, is whether the murid, given
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that he were to die as a result of attaining the nisbat, should still have
wished for it. Hazrat answered that this nisbat was such a blessing
that he should have wished for it even at the cost of his life. Hazrat
remarked that if we were to attain the nisbat of Hazrat Baqi Billah ,
we were ready to die this very instant, three days was still a long time.
On the Benefit of Love on the Day of Judgment

Someone else asked how the relationship between shaykh and murid
would help the student on the Day of Judgment. In response Hazrat
quoted a verse from the Quran about the Day of Judgment:

Friends on that day will be enemies of each other,
except the righteous. (Al-Zukhruf: 67)
Thereafter, he explained that on that fateful day, all the relationships

that were for the sake of the dunya will be forgotten. However, people
will be brought into the Plain of Resurrection (Maidaan-e-Hashr)
behind their religious leaders. The Ummah of the Prophet will
stand behind him, and within this large group there will be many
sub-groups. The followers of Imam Abu Hanifa , for instance, will
be behind him, and the sub-grouping will continue to the extent that
all those who prayed the Friday prayer behind a particular Imam will
stand behind him on the Day of Judgment. This means that on that
Day we will be with those people whom we love, follow, and whose
company we keep. Allah will merely glance at the people standing
behind someone whom He loves, and give them the green light to
enter Jannah, without asking any questions, for once questioning
begins, accountability will be inevitable.
Hazrat then quoted the following Persian verse.
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I have heard that on the day of hope and fear

Allah will forgive the sinners because of the pious.
Hazrat explained that this would be because of their relationship of

love with pious people.
Hazrat then quoted the hadith of the Prophet ,

A person will be with him who he loves (in the Hereafter).
Hazrat explained that Hazrat Abu Bakr as-Siddiq will be with the
Prophet because of his intense love for the Beloved of Allah ,
Hazrat Salman Farsi will be with Hazrat Siddiq-e-Akbar for the
same reason. Similarly, Hazrat Qasim bin Muhammad bin Abi Bakr
will be with Hazrat Salman Farsi , and this will continue through our
chain of mashaikh all the way down to our times. Hazrat said that his
Shaykh, Hazrat Ghulam Habib would be with his Shaykh, Hazrat
Khwaja Abdul Malik Siddiqui , and Hazrat, because of his love for
his Shaykh would be with him. For those of us who loved Hazrat for
the sake of Allah , this love is the only means for us to end up at
the feet of the Messenger of Allah . It is because of the hope that
this hadith gives that the Sahaba said that since entering the fold of
Islam they had never been happier than when they heard these words
from the blessed mouth of the Messenger of Allah . Hazrat quoted
a verse of the Quran that further explained this point,

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And those who believe and whose children followed them
in belief, we shall join their children with them without depriving anyone of the rewards of their deeds. Every
individual is in pledge for his deeds. (At-Tur: 21)
Hazrat explained that the glad tidings contained in this verse from
the Holy Quran were for both biological as well as spiritual progeny.
It is an immense blessing of Allah that he has instilled in our hearts
love for the pious, for we learn of a person who will be forgiven on
the Day of Judgment simply for looking at a wali of Allah with
love. We also learn from a hadith that on that Day, out of the seven
types of people who will enjoy the shade of the Throne of Allah ,
two will be those who love each other for the sake of Allah . The
relationship between Shaykh and murid is one that is purely for the
sake of Allah and has closeness to Allah as its goal for both parties rather than any worldly benefit. So if we keep this relationship
strong till our death, this one act alone could be sufficient to attain
forgiveness on the Day of Judgment.
Hazrat mentioned that some signs of this Ummah were described
in the Torah, and one of them was that it would contain people who
love each other for the sake of Allah . He also referred to a hadith
of the Prophet which foretold of people from different places
and different tribes who would gather merely for the remembrance
of Allah and their stature was such that on the Day of Judgment
their faces would be radiant and they would be resting on chairs of
pearls; although they will be neither the prophets nor from among
the martyrs, people would look at them with envy, and long to be in
their position.
Hazrat then explained the value of love for Allah . He referred
to a narration about Nabi Musa in which he overheard an old man
engaged in conversation with his Lord saying, Oh Allah, I have heard
that you do not have a wife. Oh Allah, were you to come to me I would
attend to You. I would serve You food, wash Your clothes, give You
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yoghurt, and feed You butter. Oh when You fall ill, who takes care of
You? Prophet Musa reprimanded the old man, explaining that use
of such words was disrespectful, insolent, and contrary to the greatness
of Allah . As a result the old man began to cry profusely, seeking the
forgiveness of Allah . But Allah had appreciated the intensity of
the old mans love, regardless of the inappropriate way in which he had
expressed his feelings, and instead reprimanded Nabi Musa saying,
Oh my dear Messenger, I have sent you to bridge the distance between
Me and My creation, not increase it. Hazrat sighed deeply and said
that Allah values love so much that he even appreciated the disrespectful words of this old man. If those acts that are contrary to the
greatness of Allah are pleasing to Him when done out of love, how
happy must He be with those acts of love that befit His most-exalted
stature? Even the objects of love in this world cannot help but have
a soft corner in their hearts for their lovers, so how much must Allah
love those who become so intense in their love for Allah , that
according to a Prophetic tradition, people begin to call them insane.
Hazrat mentioned that this feeling of love for Allah was granted
only to believers; although the angels were always engrossed in praising and worshipping their Lord, they did so in a mechanical way and
were not driven to it by love. It was only believers who could enjoy
this feeling to the extreme.
On Attaining the Forgiveness of Allah

Hazrat was then asked about the consequences of sins that are committed unknowingly. Hazrat replied that istighfaar was such an invaluable act that it wiped away not only those sins that were committed
unknowingly, but also those committed intentionally. Allah is so
Merciful that just a feeling of regret that comes into our heart after
committing a sin is enough to wipe that sin away. Someone then
asked What if a person does not regret having committed a sin.
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Hazrat replied that if one is doing istighfaar, some level of remorse is

there, for why else would a person be seeking the forgiveness of Allah
? Regret, he explained, is when a person feels that what he did was
wrong, that he should not have done that deed.
On the Paths of the Nafs and Qalb

The last question was regarding the difference between spiritual
diseases that originate in the nafs and those that originate in the qalb.
Hazrat clarified that although the nafs and qalb (spiritual heart) are
different, the former belonging to the Aalam-e-Khalq10 and the latter
to the Aalam-e-Amr11, they have a deep connection with each other.
The nafs is the source of desires, which could be both good (for example
the desire to become a haafiz or qari) and bad (for example the desire
for fame and praise). The heart is the source of emotions, for instance
the feeling of love for Allah , and the emotions of courage, cowardice,
generosity, miserliness. The diseases of the nafs and qalb overlap, but
some originate in the nafs and their shadow is found in the qalb, while
others originate in the qalb and their shadow is found in the nafs. If
one of the two is purified, the other will automatically be cured of its
diseases; however, the way of purification of both is different.
The way of purification of the nafs is the way of those pious predecessors who lived in the early centuries of Islam, in which mujahada,
struggling against the nafs, was adopted as the way of cleansing ones
self of spiritual diseases, and attaining the pleasure and love of Allah
10 Aalam-e-Khalq is that realm which Allah created gradually, for instance the
earth and skies in six days, and the formation of a child in the womb of the mother over
a period of nine months. This realm operates according to natural laws and cause and
effect relationships that Allah has set in place.
11 Aalam-e-Amr is that realm which Allah has brought into existence with the
utterance of the word Kun (Be). This includes angels, Heaven, Hell, the Lawh-e-Mahfuz
(Tablet), and the Arsh (Throne) of Allah , and is not bound even outwardly by rules
and regulations.
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. Those who have adopted this way towards spiritual advancement

have kept themselves far away from everything that pleases the nafs
even if it is permissible, from good food to fine clothing to engagement with mehram women; even the use of air-conditioners in homes
was considered undesirable by these mashaikh. They used to speak so
little that they could write it all down at the end of the day; Hazrat
said that if murids like us were to start doing this, we would fill entire
registers with what we uttered in a single day!
For those who lived in the latter centuries, including the present
day, Allah has made it easier to achieve the same goal, for the hardships that one had to endure to attain wilaya in the past would deter
people today from setting foot on this path. Hazrat said that in lieu
of our weakness in this day and age, Allah has created short-cuts
for us; today we are travelers of a subsidized sulook! In the Naqshbandi
silsila, spiritual diseases are cured through purification of the heart, the
logic being that if our emotions are rectified, our thoughts and desires
will automatically become in accordance with the Will of Allah .
And the way of correcting our emotions is through zikr of Allah ,
itteba-e-sunnat and muhabbat-e-Shaykh.
However, while this path is easier, the only struggle involved being
in submission to the Shariah, it is a faster way of attaining the same
goal. This is because the Aalam-e-Amr, to which the latifa-e-qalb
belongs, is higher than the Aalam-e-Khalq to which the latifa-enafs belongs. So the path that makes the purification of the heart its
primary goal starts from higher ground, and the purification of the
nafs is automatically attained in its course. Hazrat explained this by
using the example of a person who wanted to get to the top floor,
starting at the basement. He could either take the stairs up and pass
through every stage painstakingly, or he could take the elevator and
go directly to the top floor with ease. The way of the qalb is similar
to taking the elevator to the top floor. Hazrat said that his Shaykh,
Hazrat Ghulam Habib said that we are fazli, (favored) because
Allah has bestowed His special fazl (favor) upon us; we can enjoy
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the blessings of Allah , even live in palace-like homes, and still reach
the same spiritual heights that our ancestors achieved by renouncing
the pleasures of this world. Hazrat said that we should thank Allah
that He has made this journey easy for us weaklings in this day and age.
Just as today Allah has facilitated our physical journeys in light of
our physical weaknessa journey that would take a month by horse
or camel can be completed today in just an hourhe has also made
our spiritual journey easier. Our silsila, Hazrat said, is like the plane
ride of the spiritual world!
In earlier times, when people had stronger will-power, Allah
manifested the Qadiri, Chishti, and Suharwardi paths and they spread
far and wide; in this time when the believers have lesser determination, Allah has granted popularity to the Naqshbandi way. Even our
elders in the Naqshbandi path endured more mujahada and hardships
in their sulook than their spiritual offspring today, because in general,
the atmosphere then facilitated such rigor. But Hazrat Bahauddin
Naqshband Bukhari cried before Allah for years, begging the
Almighty to open for him a way that will surely lead to Him, but
will be easy to tread. And Allah answered his duas by opening the
Naqshbandi path to him. Hazrat said that because of its ease, this
tariqah will persist till the Day of Judgment.
This hour or so that we thus spent with our Shaykh was without
doubt the highlight of our entire trip, and each one of us wished that
time would stop and we could remain like this forever. However, all
too soon Hazrat decided it was time to pack our bags and head for
the airport, to catch our flight back to Istanbul.
Return from Konya

We returned from Konya late that night and headed to bed to get
some rest in anticipation of what we expected would be a busy and
emotionally draining last day in Istanbul with our dear Hazrat.
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Day 5
Visit to the Hagia Sofia (Ayasofya)
Our first stop the next day was the Hagia Sofia, Greek for Holy
Wisdom, that bastion of Christianity that was converted to a mosque
by Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh immediately after he conquered
Constantinople. It was the church of the Patriarch of Constantinople
and the religious focus point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for
nearly a thousand years.
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Immediately after the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople

in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted into the Ayasofya Mosque.
The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed, and
many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over. Islamic features
such as the mihrab, the minbar, and the four minarets outside were
added over the course of its history under the Ottomans. It functioned
as a mosque until 1935, when it was converted into a museum. The
mosaics were then restored to their original state; it was strange for us
to see paintings of Jesus and the Virgin Mary and human depictions
of angels alongside huge decorative discs bearing the names of Allah
, His Messenger and the four rightly guided caliphs .
When we arrived at the Ayasofya, we noticed that Hazrat did not

enter the main hall but instead sat throughout on a cement bench just
outside its entrance. As Hazrat sat down, he explained why he did not
come in. He said that once a space is designated as a mosque it remains
a mosque till the Day of Judgment, even if its use as such is discontinued. Therefore, he could not enter it with his shoes on and did not
want to attract unnecessary attention to himself by taking his shoes off
and walking inside bare-footed. This faqir whispered in Hazrats ears
that ahadith speak about a second conquest of Constantinople which
will be peaceful, achieved through the zikr of takbeer and tahleel, and
if Allah gives us the opportunity to return to this place after this
second peaceful conquest, perhaps we could pray inside then. Hazrat
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immediately said: We are sitting here and conquering their hearts.

After a confused moment it dawned upon this faqir that Hazrat was
sitting here giving tawajjuh to all the visitors.
The Conqueror of Hearts at the Ayasofya

For the next half hour, Hazrat sat on this bench facing the main hall of
the Ayasofya. Soon enough there was a repeat of what had happened
at Eyup Sultan, only this time it was non-Muslims who lost interest
in the artistic wonders and historic treasures that they had come to
see, and instead turned their attention towards Hazrat. Many started
to photograph him from all angles without even bothering to take
his permission. While those who had encircled him at the tomb of
Hazrat Abu Ayub al-Ansari were Muslim, here it was the non-Muslim
tourists that were attracted to him like flies. Shaykh Husain Abdul
Sattar (db) and this faqir became increasingly uncomfortable with this
situation as we knew that Hazrat would not be comfortable with the
photography. Finally, we were relieved that Hazrat decided to leave,
and as we exited the main door of the building, Hazrat explained their
curious behavior saying, There are two types of tawajjuh, one is for
Muslims, to increase their practice of the deen and to bring them closer
to Allah , and the second type is to bring non-Muslims towards
the deen. Every person whose heart forced them to take a picture
here will later experience its spiritual impact. They were compelled
by their hearts to do so because of the spiritual attraction they felt;
the attraction was not sexual since they have all such fulfillment that
they want. They were feeling a spiritual attraction because of tawajjuh
that they could not resist.
This faqir was reminded of a similar experience from our trip to
Egypt. During our visit to Mount Sinai, the head of the security staff
at the monastery there himself offered to pluck for us a few leaves
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from the Burning Bush (Shajar-e-Tajalli) and asked us to sit on

a nearby bench in the meanwhile. He had seen through his security
camera that just a short while ago when Hazrat had sat near the site of
the Burning Bush to do muraqabah, all the visitors had lost interest
in the Burning Bush and had turned their attention towards Hazrat,
snapping away with their cameras. He requested Hazrat to sit there
again so that he may take advantage of the diverted attention of the
visitors to break off a few leaves from the Burning Bush. His plan
worked and as soon as we sat down, the tourists turned their attention
towards Hazrat and started photographing him from all sides, leaving
the coast clear for the security officer to execute his plan.
As we walked through the gardens of the Ayasofya, Hazrat
explained how those who took pictures would feel its spiritual impact
later on. Hazrat shared with us his experience from when he was in
Russia many years ago. While on a boat trip, he sat down and became
engrossed in zikr when a local Russian started taking pictures of him.
Those around Hazrat tried to stop the enthusiastic photographer, but
in vain. The Russian continued snapping pictures, finishing reel after
reel. Later, one of Hazrats companions went up to the photographer
to obtain a contact number. After several months, this photographer
was contacted and the first thing the Russian asked was regarding who
Hazrat was. The murid explained that Hazrat is our spiritual guide
and the Russian informed him that he had become Muslim just by
later looking at the pictures of Hazrat taken on that fateful boat ride.
When we reached the gardens of the Ayasofya, an Algerian man, a
complete stranger, came up to us and said salaam, and introduced to
Hazrat the baby that was in his arms. Hazrat asked the man regarding
the name of his son. Muhammad, he replied. Hazrat gave the baby
a kiss on the cheek and said We always show our love to any baby
whose name is Muhammad.
We then made our way towards another historic monument just
walking distance from the Ayasofya.
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Day 5
Visit to Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Our next stop was the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, one of the most beautiful mosques in the world, popularly known as the Blue Mosque
because of the blue tiles adorning its interior, which overlooks the
Ayasofya Mosque.
One of the most notable features of the Blue Mosque is its six minarets. This is very unique, as most mosques in Turkey have four, two, or
just one minaret. According to one account, the Sultan directed his
architect to make gold (altin) minarets, but he instead made six (alti)
minarets. At that time, the only mosque with six minarets was Masjidul-Haraam in Makkah Mukarramah. When the Sultan found out that
the same number of minarets had been built for the Blue Mosque,
out of adab for Masjid-ul-Haraam, he sent his architect to Makkah
Mukarramah to construct a seventh minaret for the Mosque there.
The Difference between Asl (Real) and Naql (Fake)

Our stay at the Blue Mosque was brief. Hazrat performed salah there
after which we left right away. On the way to the bus we passed by a
performer dressed like a dervish with a giant tasbeeh, a comical turban
and a big white beard, trying to attract the attention of tourists as they
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passed by, some of whom would get their picture taken with him in
exchange for a small price. As we made our way to our bus, this comical icon waived to us from afar. The difference between the fake and
real faqir was drastic; the former was waiting for people to come to
him, smiling and waving to get their attention, while the latter, our
Hazrat, was swarmed by doting strangers wherever he went, and had
to struggle to escape their attention.
After the Blue Mosque, we headed back to our hotel. Hazrats
flight was that same evening, so he was keen to get back to the hotel
to prepare for the impending journey. To avoid last-minute anxiety,
Hazrat always prefers to be packed well in advance, and at the airport
ahead of time.
Bidding Farewell
We had all hoped against hope that by some twist of fate our time
with Hazrat in Istanbul would be extended, but alas the time came to
bid our beloved Shaykh, the light of our eyes, the undisputed king of
our hearts, farewell. With heavy hearts we accompanied him to the
airport, grateful at the opportunity of having spent so much quality
time with him, wishing, as lovers do, for more and more, and yet more.
Having both witnessed and experienced, time and time again, the
effect of Hazrats suhbah (company) on the hearts of seekers, indeed
of the mere barakah of his presence, we were certain that this trip
would be a life-altering experience for us. And having seen the way
the hearts of both Muslims and non-Muslims were attracted to his
heart, a manifestation of the power of his tawajjuh and the irresistible
magnetic pull of his noor, we knew that neither would the people
blessed enough to behold his countenance in Turkey remain the same.
Iqbal summed it up most eloquently when he said,
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Can anyone gauge the extent of his power?

The mere glance of a true believer alters destinies.
The paper is finished, the pen is finished, and we are finished,

But, the fable of desire, is still not finished.
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The Conqueror of Hearts by Shaykh Mustafa Kamal Naqshbandi

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The Conqueror of Hearts

In the Land of Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh